Dropped
by BlueMoonsAndTooSoons
Summary: Fleur, Bill, Hermione, and Draco are suddenly dropped into the arena during the 74th Games to help Katniss and Peeta win. What they don't know is how they got there and what the point of all this is. What they discover may change everything.
1. Chapter 1

**A Harry Potter/Hunger Games crossover! That hasn't been done before... actually it has. Just not quite like this. I'm not even sure if it's entirely worth pursuing at this point, but I'd like to give it try. Please read and review, telling me what you think!**

There had been a big mistake.

Fleur Weasley had a pounding in her head as she sat up, and she immediately gripped her stomach_. The baby… _She could barely put it into words as she muttered it over and over, feeling the place where life grew. Panicked, she felt around for her wand, pressing the ground… but it wasn't in reach.

"Accio wand!" She called. She felt the familiar shape of her wand once again, and wondered briefly where it had been. Then, without hesitation, she performed a wellness charm on the place where the baby lay within her.

It was fine.

Breathing a shaky breath of relief, she finally allowed herself to figure out where she was, and what happened.

"Fleur! Fleur!" A man's voice called, and Fleur managed to make a guttural sound from her throat. When she tried again, she managed a real word. "Bill…"

In no time, Bill was at her side, holding her. "Are you alright… how's the baby?"

"Fine." Fleur brought her hands to his face and gripped it closer to her own, and they rest in that way together, sitting on the ground, holding each other. They breathed quietly together, unaware of where they were physically, but emotionally, they were home.

The sound of someone else groaning cut into their peace. Fleur whipped her head in the direction of the sound. She was only three months pregnant, but her motherly instincts were starting to take their place. She remembered where she was before all of this, and who she was with. She was walking with Bill through Diagon Alley, shopping for baby things when they ran into Hermione… they were discussing things about the baby and what Hermione was up too… but then it all went black.

She assumed the groaning was Hermione now. So, gathering her strength, she removed herself the from Bill's hold, and started moving toward the groan. Wand in hand, she gestured for her husband to follow. They inched along the soft, green ground, still unsure of where they were. A few tress later, they found Hermione, clutching her head and moaning.

"Bill! Fleur!" She gasped, reaching over to them. "What happened? How's the baby?"

"Fine." The couple answered in unison to the question about the baby, but they didn't know what had happened to them, so they didn't respond. The three of them just sat there for a second, trying to make sense of everything around them.

They were surrounded by trees and foliage, but it was a really plain kind of forest. It was almost unreal. It wasn't like the forbidden forest, or any other type of woods in the wizarding world. They were… Muggle woods.

"Where are we…?" Hermione mused out loud.

"We aren't in our world anymore." Bill stated. "We need to get out of here, but I don't feel like we can apparate."

Fleur touched a tree near her. It felt like a normal tree, but it lacked something… it wasn't real.

Suddenly, they heard a rustling in the bushes only a little ways off. All three heads whipped in the direction of the sounds and three wands were pointed at the bush. Fleur, always the brash one, didn't wait to see who it was. "Stupefy!"

Someone gasped and then was silent, and the trio stood and walked over to the bush to find out who they had stunned. Hermione was in front, and she parted the bushes first, and saw a very surprising face.

Draco Malfoy.

* * *

><p>Katniss Everdeen paled as she looked at the dead body of another tribute. In a matter of seconds, the hover craft would appear and take it away, but she ran from the scene anyway, not wanting to be there when it happened. She had watched this person be killed by Cato and now she just wanted to hide. So she ran up into the woods again. She was quiet as she always was, and wondered now where she had to go. Rue was dead. Her only ally. Her only friend. Now she had to face these games on her own.<p>

She heard the sound of rustling in the woods and noisy thumping's as if people were falling out of trees. If they were falling out of tree's then Katniss wouldn't have to kill them. They'd break their necks on the way down. But soon she heard grunts and moans and soon they were calling to one another. They were confused and in pain. Katniss could relate. She'd been in pain almost since the beginning of the games. Now here were these tributes, clearly out of their element, falling out of trees and not knowing what to do with themselves.

Katniss didn't have the heart to kill them.

So she wandered away, leaving them to their own.


	2. Chapter 2

**Standard disclaimer applies. :) Read and Review!**

Katniss understood hints. She had been hinted at her entire life from her parents, her friends, and her customers. Was a particularly harsh Peacekeeper coming around the corner? All it took was a little hint from Greasy Sae and Katniss was gone in an instant. Was a large grouse trundling down the hill? Gale only had to look at her to let her know where and when. So Katniss wasn't blind when it came to understanding what people needed her to do.

But she was completely at a loss this time.

She and Haymitch had a system. If she needed to do something, he sent her a teeny item that seemed inconsequential and told her exactly what she needed to do. It was simple, straight forward, and every gift made sense. This gift, however, did not. It was… a stick. A black, wooden stick. It was simple looking with the slightest of embellishments at one end and came to a tapered point at the other. It was a little less a foot, and she guessed it to be about ten inches. What did it mean? She turned it over in her hands and looked at it carefully, trying to understand what it meant to her. Was it a weapon? In case she ever got too close to someone, she could do what? Hit them over the head and scare them like you would a goat? Haymitch was probably drunk, she assumed. But she didn't want to throw it out in case someone else could utilize it against her. Still, it seemed ridiculous.

Shoving it in her pack, she turned to find somewhere to rest for the night. The sky was becoming twilight and the air was gaining an unearthly chill. She hadn't walked far when she heard the strangest thing…

"Relashio!" Someone shouted. Katniss heard a gasp but someone else shrieked promptly. There were shots of light and vibrant colors flashing through the trees. Was it some new kind of weapon?

"Reducto!" Someone else shouted. More lights, more colors. Katniss thought it was best to run, and avoid the mess that seemed to be going on down there, but then she remembered. It was the place where those unfortunate and clueless tributes were. They were probably being attacked by someone else; someone who wouldn't pity them the way she had.

Katniss was torn. Should she help? No, not if she wanted to stay alive…

"Petrificus Totalus!" A high, female voice called out. It was clear and strong… and accented.

She wanted to see at least what it was, this weapon that was being used. If she could see it she could learn how to avoid it. If she was quiet enough, no one would even see her. It was stupid. A very bad idea if there ever was one, but Katniss thought it might be necessary.

So she snuck down to the place where the poor tributes had to be, probably dying. It wouldn't hurt now to see what was going on.

Peeking through the brush, what she saw wasn't what she expected. On the ground, lying in an awkward position, was the male tribute from district three. She didn't care to know his name but recognized him from the training ground. He couldn't be dead, because people don't die like that… frozen in the air. There were weapons lying on the ground as if they had been dropped and ashes blew in the air like snow.

The most surprising thing of all though, were the people who were standing up.

She had never seen them before, and they weren't dressed for the arena, for sure. One man had red hair that came down to his shoulders and a couple of scars running along his right cheek. Holding his hand was a beautiful young woman with blonde hair elegantly tied back and flowing down over her shoulders. She was talking to another girl who looked simple, but extremely pretty with curly blonde hair and bright eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, but she looked completely fine, as did all the others. Then there was a man. He was tall and handsome, standing a ways off from the others, looking grumpy and gloomy. His platinum blonde hair was disarrayed but carefully parted and his eyes were flashing in between the two women as they talked quietly.

"Are there any more of them?" The shorter girl with the curly hair asked.

"I don't know. It doesn't make sense that we'd be attacked by muggles like this. Surely they're more civilized than that." The beautiful girl said.

"I'll check girls." The red headed man said. "Homenum Revelio…"

And he held up a stick.

Just like the stick in Katniss's pack. She looked away from the four people there, as curious as she was to see what they did, she also had to figure out how the stick related to them. Pulling it out of her pack, she looked at it and was about to look up to compare notes when she heard the sound of stepping. When her eyes lifted, she had three of those sticks in her face.

"Hello." Katniss gasped, trying to figure out why the sticks were so threatening. The blonde man stood back, stick-less.

Finally the red head spoke up. "Hey Draco, I believe she has your wand." He reached out with his other hand. "Give it here, please."

Katniss shook her head and backed up. "I don't think so. It's mine."

"Doesn't matter if it's yours or not, you can't use it." The blonde young man snapped. She assumed he was the one called Draco.

"Expelliarmus!" The shorter girl announced and suddenly Katniss was blown backwards and the wand flew from her hand. The shorter girl caught it and handed it off to Draco who muttered, "Thanks a lot Granger. It think's it belongs to you now…"

"Shut up, Malfoy." The girl responded.

"How did you get the wand?" The beautiful woman asked.

"It just came to me… from the sky. I don't know why I had it." Katniss answered honestly. She was beginning to fear these sticks in her face. "Who are you people?"

"We're not people." Draco snapped again. It seemed to be the only way he knew how to talk. "We're wizards."

"That's ridiculous. Wizards and magic… they aren't real." Katniss surged to her feet, ignoring the "wands." Of course, she wasn't so sure at this point. They had done some seriously strange things in the past minute or so, and she was beginning to come to the conclusion that they had been the ones to petrify the kid from three and get rid of all the others.

"Maybe in this world, where ever this world is, but not in our world." The red head said. He looked at Katniss quizzically before he asked; "Are you going to attack us like the others?"

"Not unless you're tributes." Katniss shot back.

The red head gave this some thought. "I don't believe we are tributes, what ever that may be."

"Then I won't attack you." Katniss affirmed. Then all the "wizards" lowered their wands.

"I'm Bill." The red head stuck out his hand to shake, and Katniss took it, bewildered.

"I'm Katniss." She responded. She soon learned that the beautiful girl's name was Fleur and the other girl was named Hermione. The blonde man was indeed, Draco, but he seemed to sullen to introduce himself.

"Where are we?" Fleur asked, as they walked away from the scene of their originality.

"You're in the arena for the Hunger Games." Katniss answered. She was particularly aware that all the people with her were making too much noise. "Can you walk any quieter?"

"I'll fix it." Hermione quipped. She raised her stick… wand, and muttered, "Muffliato. There, no one will hear us now… I'll just have to make a few adjustments to make sure it follows us…" She trailed off, and Bill just patted the girl's head fondly. Katniss wondered if that meant even the various sound recorders in the arena would hear them. She asked, and Hermione told her that no muggle contraption would pick up a word they said. Katniss found this extremely liberating.

"What are the Hunger Games?" Fleur asked again. She seemed to be holding her lower stomach in a way the suggested either pain or pregnancy. Looking a little closer from the corner of her eyes, she could see that Fleur indeed had a small bump where her hand rested.

"It's a gladiator competition of sorts." Katniss answered, bitterness creeping into her voice. "Children are sent here to fight to the death."

There was a collective gasp from the group. Draco didn't gasp though, he just looked even more sad.

"That's terrible! How can this be done?" Hermione stared at Katniss with wide eyes.

Katniss just shook her head. "The Capitol can make us do whatever they want."

"You'll have to explain the situation to us then. We're… foreigners." Bill explained.

So Katniss told them where they were and what the state of things was. She explained the districts and the rebellion, and it seemed that everyone's eyes became as gloomy as Draco's, and Fleur seemed to hold her stomach tighter than she had before.

"Bloody hell…" Bill cursed. "What the devil are we doing here then? If what you say is true, then how did we get in here?"

Katniss had been wondering about that too. It seemed to her that there was a connection now, between the gift from Haymitch and these people. The wand that belonged to one of them and the fact that they could so easily defend and conquer…

"I think you were sent here to help me." She said, still looking as confused as the others. It didn't make sense to Katniss, who had been doing quite fine on her own without this help. She wondered then, if Haymitch thought she was inept or something. She had more than proved she was qualified to be a remaining contender, even if she hadn't killed anyone. Haymitch's constant disregard for her was infuriating sometimes. Then his willingness to send these people to help her- which seemed like a complete waste of human life- was ill conceived and probably illegal.

"How can we help?" Hermione asked, without any question or hesitation. That bothered Katniss. She was too… sweet.

"We have to kill every other person in this arena." Katniss said, with no tone.

"Oh." Hermione responded. "That still seems… I don't know if we can."

"I know." Katniss turned away. "You have that choice. I don't."

Bill was thoughtful, but he spoke up. "I have the feeling we need to do something. It's not like we haven't killed before."

"But they were the enemy, Bill!" Fleur gasped. "They were going to kill us. Voldemort wanted to destroy us and Harry. It's different here. These are children who are innocent and lost."

That name she said… Voldemort. It sent chills up Katniss's spine. However, she couldn't help but add, "If it's any consolation, these 'innocent children' won't hesitate to kill you."

Draco snorted. "I'd like to see them try."

"Wizards can be killed, Malfoy." Hermione retorted smartly. "If you were stabbed in the back, you'd bleed to death just like a muggle."

"Or, one of you could perform the revitalizing charm and I'd be good as new." He smirked.

"What if none of s were around. Or better yet, if none of us cared." Hermione responded cruelly.

"That would go over well on your conscious." Draco mocked. "Face it Granger, you wouldn't let anyone die, even me. I may not be Ronald Weasly, but I'm still human."

Hermione blushed, and Bill turned around. "Shut up, you too. And you leave Hermione alone about Ron, Draco or I won't hesitate to hex you."

"Are you defending your little brother, then?" Draco looked completely at ease and unaffected by Bill's menacing glare. The party had stopped walking and Katniss just watched them bicker. However, she was getting more and more uncomfortable as the time went on. She was beginning to doubt that little spell Hermione had set up would stop people from hearing this ruckus, and she was worried they would be seen, just standing out here. Katniss didn't want to find herself at the center of an attack if a career pack suddenly popped out of nowhere.

Suddenly the two boy were flinging light at each other, with abandon. One of them from Draco flew past Bill and headed for Katniss, who had the sense to get out of the quickly. Occasionally one would mutter something and the light would be magnificent. That was enough for Katniss. They might as well have shot off a flare gun alerting everyone in the arena to where they were.

"Make them stop!" Katniss whispered furiously at Hermione and Fleur, who were watching the exchange with some apathy.

"They're flinging rather unimportant hexes and curses." Hermione noticed. "They won't really hurt one another."

"I don't care about that!" Katniss spat. "Everyone know where we are now and won't hesitate to come running to kill us!"

"I didn't think of that." Hermione admitted. But instead of telling the boys to stop, (Katniss had noticed that nobody really seemed to liked Draco, and she got the impression they were hoping this little duel would silence him for a while.) She just walked a ways off and started waving her wand around.

Katniss gripped her head. It seemed like a better idea just to run off and leave these magicians to their own.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Standard disclaimer applies. **

**Also, I fail to understand what else I should be putting in here. I don't get how everyone can blabber in these little spaces above and below their story. It just seems superfulous. But it is friendly... I'll learn the art of it. **

Fleur helped Hermione finish the boundary around their camp place after Draco and Bill had stopped fighting. It hadn't taken long for them to desist, but Draco was fuming and Bill was acting a little smug. The girls assumed Bill had won the duel for now, and turned to find Katniss and see what could be done. But when they turned around, she was gone.

"Maybe she went to… find, something." Fleur offered up, trying to sound hopeful, but no one was reassured.

"She probably left us." Draco muttered. "Not that it matters. We hardly need the help of a muggle."

Hermione sighed impatiently. "She was worried about being found and killed. I bet you two scared her off." She said accusingly, pointing at the two boys.

"Where can she go in here?" Fleur asked, worried. "It's so dangerous."

"She can handle herself." Bill shook his head. "She's been in here a while and it seems to me that she knows exactly how to stay safe."

Hermione had been looking around now, and trying to understand what this arena was made of. Everything seemed real, while at the same time being fake. She didn't understand the science of it, but she was going to figure it out. "I believe there are many opportunities for her here. She could hunt or forage for food. I'm not very familiar with the way she could do this, but based on what I see here… "

"We don't care, Granger." Draco cut in. "The point is, she had something else to do, and so do we. I'm hungry."

"Forget about your stomach just for a little while you prat!" Hermione snapped. "We need her to tell us where we are and what we need to do!"

"I fail to see how she can tell us what to do. Hell, I fail to see how she can tell us to do anything!" Draco spat back.

"You misunderstand me, as usual. She's the only one who knows the what and why; our only clue as to how we are here. Without her, we are farther from the truth." Hermione snapped.

As the two of them fought, Bill gave his wife a little kiss on the lips. "Aren't you glad we aren't like that?"

"Yes." She said contentedly. "I've never fought my attraction to you."

"Implying of course, they're attracted to one another?" Bill said, scrunching up his face.

"You can tell. Too much tension." Fleur tilted her head to the side. "I'm French. I know what I'm talking about."

"I know. I just always thought she and Ron would… get back together." Bill shook his head. "I see her as a little sister, you know."

"So does Ron. That's why it didn't work out." Fleur answered knowingly.

"Yeh, well, seeing as I view her as a sister and I only want the best for her, I fail to see how Draco could be good for her. He's too much of a…" He stopped what he was about to say and looked at his wife. She raised an eyebrow and he continued carefully. "Um, a jerk. He's just too nasty."

"He'll improve." Fleur said, happy with her husband's choice of words. "They always do."

"Not Draco. He's had years to get better, but he's still as sour as pepper imps."

"He hasn't been told he needs to get better. No one instructed him in the right way." Fleur corrected. "Narcissa is a good woman, but she indulges him. He may be nasty, but he's safe now from the tyranny of his father and that influence."

In the meantime, Draco and Hermione had reached a tentative agreement. They would find Katniss and get more information about their situation. However, Draco thought they should go ahead and act like tributes in the games. Hermione still thought the whole thing barbaric, and opposed his idea vehemently.

None of them were too alert, nor were any of them overly frightened. It seemed like a ridiculous situation to these seasoned wizards that they would be at all threatened by a group of muggle children. Yes, Katniss had explained their ferocity and bloodthirsty attitude, but it was nothing a wave of the wand couldn't prevent. Besides that, Muggles couldn't see them at this point. Saved by disillusionment charm, the silencing charm, and the protection charm… well, they could rest easy. They tried to make light of the situation, and it was, in comparison, light. But that didn't mean it was any less unnerving for them. They tried to plan, and tried to set something up, but Hermione had lost her never-ending bag and didn't have much with her. They could get water using the Aguamenti Charm and make simple foods, but all in all it was impossible for them to stay out here much longer without the use of modern conveniences. It was Draco who first discovered that a lack of a toilet was a very grievous thing.

"We should do something." Draco muttered, coming back from a very awkward situation behind tree. "I don't particularly like being here."

Hermione was enjoying his humiliation, but he pretended not to notice. To give her the satisfaction of defense would only imply that he was aware of the awkwardness he had just come from. He wouldn't give her that.

"What can we do in the moment?" Fleur asked, a hand resting on her stomach. "It isn't like we can just to trekking through this forest to deliver unjust killings."

"I don't see why not." Draco shook his head. Then, so everyone's surprise, Bill stood up with him.

"I have to say, I'm starting to agree with Draco. They've already tried to kill us before, and I believe we should fight back." Bill looked at Draco, but Draco seemed impassive. He only nodded his agreement.

"Exactly."

Fleur looked at Hermione. "What do you think about this, dear?"

The petite young woman pondered this idea. "Well… I suppose when they attacked us, she weren't do it with childlike innocence. They knew what they were doing, and they were on the offensive. Maybe some children…" Hermione stopped her though. Draco rolled his eyes at her apparent naivety.

"They've trained for this, Granger." Draco pushed. "They want to kill or be killed. They know that's how it goes."

"And they don't seem entirely against it." Bill added. Hermione couldn't decide if that was helpful or not.

"Alright." She shuddered as she agreed. "This goes against everything I stand for but… it seems we have no choice."

"We don't." Fleur sighed. "But we have help. That Katniss girl…"

Suddenly a trumpet's blare came out of no where and filled the arena. Bill grasped Fleur, and Hermione wished for a second she had someone to hold her like that. She looked at Draco, but didn't even consider him for a moment.

"Hello Tributes! It seems the organizers and the President have approved a new rule change for you!" Said a cheerfully, booming voice. "We might have two winners this year! If both tributes from the same district are the only ones alive at the end of the games, they will both be declared winners!" There was silence for a while, and the voice repeated itself. "If two tributes from the same district live, they win! Let the games commence!" A slight crackle and then the voice was gone.

"What do we do now?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't see how this applies to us."

"It applies to Katniss!" Hermione gasped. "If someone from her, ah, district is still alive, they could work together."

"Does this mean she doesn't need us anymore?" Fleur asked, somewhat hopefully. "That we can go home?"

"No, I think it means that we get to help both of them survive." Hermione explained. "I think we're here for a reason, and I bet it has something to do with the magical world. We have to help these two win."

Draco muttered under his breath. "There goes know-it-all Granger, signing us up for things we don't want to do."

"I don't see that we have a choice. Can you disapperate?" Hermione smirked.

Draco appeared to concentrate very hard on something, but soon shook his head. "Not to where I want to go, which is any where but here."

Bill looked up then, as he had been doing the same concentration Draco had. "Yes, but it seems we can still go places in the arena." He explained. "Can I try it?"

"Just be safe." Fleur warned gently. Bill nodded and closed his eyes… and was gone. Only a second later he was back, laughing.

"What is it?" Fleur smiled at her husband, relieved he had decided not to explore where ever he went too.

"I wanted to go to the place we had landed originally, but when I got there, a few kids were sitting around a camp fire, talking I guess. The look on their faces though!" He laughed. "I wish George could have seen it… He would be impressed by his big brother's jokester moment."

"Weasleys." Draco muttered rolling his eyes. He still realized he was the odd man out here, because everyone else was enjoying the joke. It was not a situation he liked. However, he had no intentions of joining in now, as it was tacky.

**Thank you for reading! I hope you understand my style though. It's preferable for me to write in one-shot format, and maintaining different situations for different chapters. It just makes sense to me, I guesss. Well, please review! Thank you, again!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for some of your great reviews you guys! They really encouraged me to write this chapter, which I hope you'll enjoy. I adore my reviewers, and hope some of my other readers will review as well. Thank you, nonetheless, to any one who has favorited or story alerted my little tale here. Read and review!**

Katniss stood over the body of Peeta Mellark and had a startling idea. The boy was alive, but he was hurt badly, and Katniss couldn't do a thing about it. With no way of helping him, Katniss was afraid he might die, and that wasn't an option anymore.

She'd have to ask those wizards for help. The idea was almost embarrassing, and she shrunk away from it. But they could heal Peeta, and then she could keep him alive. He could go home to his family, and she could go to hers. They could survive… if the people with the funny, magic sticks would help them.

"Peeta, Peeta, can you hear me?" She asked, getting on her knees next to the boy.

He blinked and nodded his head every so slightly. Breathing hard, she told him what would happen.

"There are people Peeta, they can help you and help us win. But they're a little queer. You just have to let them do… whatever it is they do. Can you do that." He seemed to struggle responding, so she added; "Blink once for yes, and twice for no."

He blinked once.

"Okay… wait here Peeta, I'm going to get them." Katniss put her hand on his hair for a second, trying to make sense of her feelings right now. She was going to go and grovel to magicians to save Peeta. It was a course of action that had never, ever occurred to her in her whole life.

Standing up, Katniss turned to run. It wasn't blindly either, as Katniss knew exactly where to go. She remembered the path she took and followed it with perfection. She couldn't risk loosing them now, when she required their hocus-pocus so much.

Yet when she reached the place she knew they would be, there was nothing.

The area itself looked exactly the same, but it looked at if no one had been there at all. There were no wizards, no wands, and no possible aid. Short of crying out for their attention, where ever they were, she didn't know what to do. Knowing that she had made enough noise running through the forest to get here, it had been her greatest hope to find them quickly. But they weren't here… she had failed… Peeta would die…

"Oh, hello Katniss." Hermione said, steeping out of no where. "We were wondering where you'd got to."

Not sure whether to be scared, shocked, or relieved, Katniss explained the situation to Hermione as best she could.

"Oh, I'll go right away. The others can stay here. Hold on, just let me tell them…" Hermione popped her head back into oblivion before it appeared on the rest of her body. "Draco's coming too. He's going to help carry the boy back."

Sure enough, Draco suddenly appeared before Katniss too, almost sending her into cardiac arrest. These wizards were too much.

"Can we just apperate there?" Draco whined.

"We don't know where it is." Hermione said in a sensible tone. Katniss just ignored them and lead the way.

When the reached the spot where Peeta was laying, the wizards got down on their knees and started to manually clear away the leaves and mud.

"_Sourgify."_ Hermione muttered gently. The mud that caked his wound and most of his body was suddenly gone and Peeta looked much better. He was unconscious at this point as well, which Katniss thought was just as well. It would be easier for the wizards this way.

"_Episky." _Draco said. All the little bruises and cuts on Peeta's body started to disappear, and the gory wound on his leg looked a little bit better, but it was still sickening. "_Ferula._"

With a splint on his leg, it helped the wound stay still, but Hermione thought it was pointless.

"Why did you do that?" She asked, annoyed.

"I thought it would help." Draco defended, moving the leg a bit to the right. Peeta stirred then, groans issuing forth from his mouth. Both were quiet for a second, but soon resumed their argument in hushed tones.

"His leg isn't broken! It's just wounded!" Hermione gasped impatiently.

"Setting it will help the muscles reconnect."

"Why did you offer to come with me any way?" The girl asked, fuming. Katniss noticed that even thought they were fighting, they had never stopped working their magic in tandem. Peeta kept looking better and better. So while their fight was annoying, Katniss saw how little it affected their work, and let them carry on. Because they worked surprisingly well together.

"It would be something to do other than sit around with Mr. and Mrs. Lovesick Weasley. Besides, if we rescue this guy…" Maybe I'll have a companion the way all of you have each other. Draco didn't say it out loud of course. It wasn't something Draco was too excited for Hermione to know. "We might get out of here sooner."

"Fine. I see that it didn't stem from the compassion in your heart, but I should have never expected that anyway." Hermione said offhandedly. Expecting Draco to respond with a snotty comment, she turned her nose up, waiting for the remark to fly through the air.

It never came. Draco just muttered a quick healing spell that seemed to cover the wound with a fleshy band-aid.

"What's that?" Hermione asked, curious. She leaned close to the wound to examine it, but couldn't deduce what it really was.

"It's a spell I found in one of my dad's books." Draco shrugged.

"Is it in the Episky family?" Hermione prodded the covering gently with a finger, a gesture that made Katniss feel ill.

"Yeh, but I don't know the direct link. It has something to do with the utilization of extra skin cells in the body that come together in this familiar type of bandage…"

While Hermione listened intently to Draco's explanation of the spell, Katniss looked away, slightly bored. She was pleased they could help Peeta, but there wasn't much else she could do. She didn't mean to look heartless, or that she didn't love him (even if she didn't), but what was she supposed to do? The capitol would be expecting a show, a ridiculously romantic one at that. It was her duty to be in love, and now it could save her life. Thinking out a coarse of action though, would be hard.

Then, a sound in the woods caught her attention. Just a twig snapping, but soon she heard more twigs snap, and the undergrowth make way for a large shape. There were hunters in the woods near them now. Tributes coming to kill.

"Um, guys, we have a problem." She leaned down to the wizards deep in discussion, but they caught the drift immediately. Standing up, they put their wands it what she assumed was the ready position.

Katniss strung an arrow on her bow and waited for another sound. One second passed, and then another. Time rolled around them like a lazy creek, taking longer that it ought to when the destination was so near at hand.

_Five seconds, six seconds…_ There it was! The slightest rustle behind a bush. Pulling back her bow, she let an arrow fly in the bush.

And the attack began.

Three tributes rushed forward, weapons drawn. It was almost evenly matched, but Katniss believed that the wizards were the equivalent of two people.

"Protect Peeta!" Katniss yelled, letting another arrow fly into the arm of a female tribute. She gasped in pain, but kept coming, a knife in her hand. Katniss pulled out another arrow, but had to move away from the approaching woman. She ran, swerving and ducking in case the knife was thrown, and soon she found enough time and space to send her second arrow flying. It made a perfect shot directly into her jugular artery. The woman fell over dead.

Draco and Hermione were defending themselves brilliantly as well, without any hesitation or holding back.

"_Expulso!"_ Hermione shouted, causing the tree near one of the tributes to explode, knocking him over.

"I_mpedimenta!" _Draco flicked his wand at an oncoming tribute, who suddenly couldn't walk straight and kept tripping all over himself.

Hermione's attacker soon corrected himself while she had her attention slightly distracted by Draco's spell. He came up dangerously close to her, but Hermione showed no fear, shouting: "_Sectumceptra!" _

Blood suddenly spurted from the body of the tribute, and he fell back, gasping in pain and disbelief. This suddenly action frightened the other attacker who was still tripping all over himself. Draco had an evil smirk on his face as he proceeded to frighten the poor young man by levitating him in the air and shaking him roughly.

Meanwhile, Hermione was beginning to feel awful at what she'd just done to the poor child, but she didn't know how to reverse it. Heck, she barely knew the spell. It was just something she had read in Harry's potions book fifth year; One of those random memories that would pop up occasionally in her mind. She had never used it before now, and was wondering if she should have used it in the first place. There are better ways to kill, if one must kill at all. Make it straight and clean. Don't allow them to suffer.

So really, and this point, she'd be doing them a favor.

Taking a deep breath, and harboring a sob, Hermione pointed her wand at the gasping young man. He was covered in blood and convulsing, his eyes swimming in their sockets and his hands clenched so tight, the knuckles were sheet white.

"_Avada Kedavra."_

The boy stopped moving completely.

Hermione cried out in despair.

Draco, upon hearing this noise, brought the teenager down from the sky and set him on an Imperius curse. Now feeling very peculiar, the boy ran away into the woods, and Draco wouldn't let Katniss shoot him down,

"He'll spread word that we're here, and we're incredibly dangerous." He was smirking, but it soon dropped from his features. "Let's get this Peter fellow back to our camp." Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see Hermione, choking on her tears.

"We really need to go. The hovercraft will be here any minute to pick these bodies up." Katniss urged them, helping to lift Peeta up into a sitting position. Draco looked at the boy for a second, but then carefully muttered, 'Wingardium Leviosa." Peeta floated gently into the sky as Draco directed his body into a comfortable position, keeping the leg straight.

Katniss recognized the spell. 'Don't hurt him!" She shrieked, assuming the same thing would happen to Peeta as it did the other tribute Draco had tortured.

"Get away! You'll mess up my concentration." He snapped. Katniss looked to Hermione, but she seemed completely engrossed in her sorrow, not making any effort at all to stop Draco. Taking this as a good sign, Katniss followed along behind, watching for any indication of harm that might come to the young man who was supposedly her lover.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you all for your fantastic reviews! **

**Please enjoy the next chapter and review when you are done. Also, thank you to the people who have favorited my story or put it on alert. You all are also fabulous!**

Bill and Fleur got to work almost immediately. They set up a place for Peeta and made him as comfortable as possible. Fleur knew a little bit more about healing magic than any of them, so she made herself the official nurse. Moment by moment, the wounds shrunk and looked less and less serious. Katniss visited him often and asked if she could do anything, but Fleur always politely told her 'no' with her slight accent, and made Katniss leave. Wandering around the little campsite made the girl on fire feel like a slightly smoldering ember, and it was making her go crazy. Bill and Hermione were talking about something she couldn't understand, and Draco said he was going out to patrol the area. No one was watching her, so Katniss decided to leave as well.

Slipping out of the camp always felt odd to Katniss, who got the sensation she was stepping through a waterfall without getting wet. When she looked back, she couldn't see the camp at all, and it comforted her to know that they were all perfectly safe and out of sight.

Slipping an arrow into her bow, she stepped forward, tense and eager. She knew, (thanks to some spell by her wizard friends) that no one was immediately near.

She wondered when things had gotten so strange, as if the Games weren't strange enough. They were trying to figure out their reason for being here, but as far Katniss could see, there was no plausible situation for wizards to be here except keep her alive. It didn't make sense, but it was the only thought they could manage. There was probably something bigger than them going on, something of massive importance.

Katniss didn't know. She only wanted to live. Live past the games and get home. Home to Prim, Gale, Madge, even her mother. If these enchanters could do that, then she would take advantage of it.

There was the small rustle of the bushes that indicated game was near. Eager to make the kill, Katniss shot into the bush .

"Bloody hell!" Draco suddenly popped out of the bush, swearing profusely with what Katniss assumed were wizard obscenities. They were just bizarre to her. "Merlin's ass, you could have killed me! Oh Salazaar, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking you were a small woodland creature." Katniss balked. "What were you doing in the bushes?"

"I told you I went out patrolling." Draco threw the arrow at Katniss's feet. "Merlin, you're as daft as Hermione."

"What?" Katniss remarked. "Grown men don't make teeny rustles in shrubbery. I naturally assumed you were an animal."

"I was an animal, just not one that you kill." Draco mumbled. "I wouldn't expect you to understand transfiguration; you're a Muggle after all."

Katniss was never one to fuss over details, so she didn't ask what he meant when he said he was an animal, or what transfiguration was. She just looked around to make sure no one had heard their debacle, and then lowered her voice. "I was hunting. I'm hungry, and I guess you all are as well."

"Yeah?" Draco shook his head. "I haven't seen anything worth eating around here, especially the small animals."

"Well that's what I usually eat. Are there none?"

"No, I haven't seen one. And it's odd, because I could tell they were all over the place earlier."

Katniss thought about what that might mean. "The game makers." She finally announced. "They probably took all the animals out."

"What purpose does that serve?" Draco asked, just as baffled by this action as Katniss was by his unique swear words.

"It shortens the games. It forces the tributes to get together." Katniss looked around then again, as if it was a habit.

"No one's here." Draco gestured to the woods surrounding them. "Do you know where to get food?"

"Well…" Katniss thought about what she had seen during her days in the arena. "I know the career tributes have most of the food stockpiled somewhere. There won't be many of them left though, so I don't know if that collection still exists or not."

"We should check it out then." Draco said, fingering his wand. "Where is it?"

"By the lake, in the open valley." Katniss explained.

"I know how to get there… I guess I shouldn't use my animagous though. You might shoot me again." Draco smirked.

Katniss was unsure exactly what the joke was, but it still seemed funny, so she cracked a smile. "We can walk there. It's not far."

He nodded and they started to walk in the direction of the clearing. Katniss couldn't help but notice how different the tall blonde was now than when he was with his fellow wizards. She wasn't very familiar with traditional friendships, but she knew that Draco wasn't friends with the other wizards though. They way they treated each other was usually hostile and with impatience. While the other three seemed chummy enough, Draco was left out in almost every aspect. Once, Katniss even heard Hermione mutter, "I wish it had been Harry or Neville who came with us instead" to Bill.

She wondered briefly if she should make some sort of an effort towards the young wizard, but she was too awkward socially to know what to do.

It was a blessing then, when they came to the edge of the woods, and talking couldn't exist. Crouching in the dense underbrush, the pair could see Clove, Cato, and another boy standing around the camp they had set up. The only other tributes Katniss knew to be alive were Foxface, Marvel, Glimmer, Thresh, and a handful of others from random districts. She saw the career leaders in front of her though, and they were the only ones that mattered.

"This is too easy." Draco muttered, shifting his weight around in the brush.

"How so?" Katniss, not sensing the same confidence, asked.

"If they can just be distracted by something in the opposite end of the clearing, I can make a good portion of food come here, and we can disapparate back to the camp."

"Do you want me to go distract them?" Katniss asked, unsure if that was a good idea.

"Not necessary." Draco waved his hand and effectively removed the suggestion from existence. "I can distract them well enough." Setting himself up on his elbows, Draco pulled out his wand. After a little thought, he muttered under his breath, and waved his stick a little bit. There was a bit of light from the tip, and suddenly a large creature was standing at the other end of the clearing.

Katniss was in a panic and had never seen something so frightening. It's cordlike tail, flicked back and forth as it's head, something that looked human, drooled and growled. It pranced a little bit and it seemed to make the ground shake a little with it's motion. Katniss quickly loaded her bow, and prepared to shoot, but Draco stopped her, calm as ever.

"The manticore won't last long, so we have to hurry."

Katniss, just stayed down then, and observed the reaction of the three standing near the food. Clove looked like she was about to vomit, and Cato and the other tribute, seemed to be sizing it up with some trepidation. Finally, Cato ran towards the beast, spear in hand, ready to fight it. The other two followed, made bolder by their leader.

While they were being brave, Katniss watched with mirth as their food began to get up and walk over to the couple in the bush.

Bread, apples, pots of cold soup, and even a few blocks of cheese all marched over to the woods while the three defenders were knocked about by the playful, sadistic paws of a creepy cat.

"This is the best thing I have ever seen." Katniss laughed a little. She was looking between the marching food and frightened tributes quickly, but she could swear Cato's pants became a dark brown by the crotch.

"I think we have enough. The manticore is almost done…" As he said this, the beast roared and pounced on the unknown tribute and bit his arm off. The boy screamed in pain and clutched his bloody stump with horror, feeling the goo seep between his fingers. Cato and Clove were badly scratched and looked at the boy with such abomination, Katniss thought they might run away. She looked back at Draco, who appeared to have shrunk all the food into his pocket. "Let's go." He said.

Katniss, who was no longer amused by the struggle, was happy to leave. Draco waved his wand and whispered, "Finite Incantatem."

The manticore disappeared into thin air and Clove screamed. The boy missing his arm shrieked as well, and without missing a beat, Clove pulled out a knife and stabbed the kid in his jugular artery. He fell over dead, still clutching his bloody stump.

"She's a brutal bit-" Draco started, but Hermione didn't hear what he said. She only walked ahead, wishing there were somethings she never had to see.

In the camp, Hermione was a flurry of worry when the two came back from their little adventure.

"Katniss! Why didn't you tell us you were going! We were so worried!" She shrieked. "I almost went looking for you!"

"No on was worried about Draco." Katniss pointed out, unsure what to do with the frivolous concern the young woman was placing on her welfare.

"Malfoy can take care of himself." Hermione said off-handedly, but it made Katniss angry.

"And I can't? I've been doing just fine by myself, and I certainly don't need your help! You need mine!" She shouted. Hermione was beginning to act like her mother, and Katniss hated that.

"That's not what she meant…" Bill tried to intercede, but Hermione didn't stand down.

"You don't need us? Who would be healing your boyfriend right now if we weren't here? You?" Hermione scoffed. "Look, as far as we know, you are the only way we have back home. Sorry if keeping you alive is a priority."

"I just wish you'd stop smothering me like you were my mother! I can take care of myself!" Katniss barked. "Thank you for helping, but you don't get to tell me when I can come and go. That's my decision."

"Granger," Draco laid a hand on her arm. "She's dealt with a lot this afternoon. Lay off."

"Bugger off, Malfoy. What do you know?" Hermione snapped.

Draco just looked back at her and into her eyes. There seemed to be some kind of unspoken communication between them that made Hermione calm down before Draco answered; "Plenty."


	6. Chapter 6

**Yes! Ladies and Gentlemen, it is chapter five. Thank you for your reviews on the last chapter and thank you for reading. Please enjoy this chapter and review, review, review! **

Hermione let it go after that. She didn't fuss and she didn't press them for information. Katniss could tell she was dying to know how they got the food, but repressed it.

Peeta improved too, and he was soon awake, and soon completely freaked out.

"What the hell?" He sat up in his makeshift bed. Fleur had conjured a type of tent for coverage, and it was massive. On the inside, at least.

"Did I die?" Peeta asked, looking at the pretty girl sitting in front of him. "The Games… did I win?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Lie down now, or you'll get dizzy." Pressing his shoulders, she pushed him back onto the cot.

"I know that, I was dizzy as soon as I sat up. I just… where's Katniss?" He clutched his head. "Can I see her?"

Fleur gave him a look. "You aren't as paranoid as she is, and you accept my help without knowing who I am. You are very interesting for someone who has been in these Games. I will get Katniss." She stood up and left, leaving Peeta to his thoughts.

"Peeta!" Katniss cried, coming to his side. The tent door had only been open for a second, but he had seen other people standing outside.

"What's going on?" He asked, his speech slightly garbled by seeing her.

"They're helping us. We're going to win." Her eyes shone, and he noticed how much prettier they were when happy.

"Sure, but who are they?"

Her smiled dropped and she chewed on her lip. "Alright, I'm not so sure how to tell you this, but you'll just have to believe me. They're wizards."

Peeta snorted.

"Really! And they have wands and can do magic… I've seen it Peeta, honest!"

He shook his head. "Don't be so fooled. It's just some trick from the capitol. You're letting them dupe you into their funny scheme to make the Games more interesting. Come on, you have more sense than that!"

"I don't think they'd send us a pregnant one." Katniss raised her eyebrow.

"Lie."

"You hold her hair back while her husband goes scouting and then tell me if it's so much a lie then." Katniss snapped.

"Fine. Just because she's got a bun in the oven, doesn't mean she's a wizard. Everyone can have sex."

Katniss blushed at his undisguised language. "You would have died if it hadn't been for them."

"I'm sure you would have saved me, yourself. Your mom is a healer." He brought his hand up to push hair away from her face. The blush on her cheeks deepened.

"I'm no good at it though…" She sniffed.

"I'm glad you found me." He whispered. "I'm so, so glad."

He brought his face up to hers…

"Oh, don't listen now, they're about to make out." Draco gagged, walking away from the tent opening.

'Shush! They'll hear you!" Hermione whispered furiously. "You don't want to disturb them."

"There are silencing charms all over this tent. I doubt they'll hear a word I say. Besides, children should be macking on each other. It's inappropriate." Draco shrugged.

"Oh, that's rich. Draco Malfoy, womanizer extraordinaire, doesn't think that young people should be allowed to innocently kiss." Hermione scoffed. "I know you started your illustrious career in school, Malfoy. You don't fool us."

"I am not a womanizer, nor do I have a 'career' as you so eloquently called it." Draco defended. "I've dated a few girls. That's all."

Turning from Draco, Hermione looked at Bill and Fleur, who were sitting at the base of a tree, talking quietly. "I love the Daily Prophet, don't you? I get a newspaper every time they print a new copy. Usually such a reliable magazine, excluding Rita Skeeter exposés of course. However, she has never reported on Draco's dating life. No… that was all done by someone who wins awards for the honesty of their reporting. Yes… I just love the Daily Prophet." With the final statement, Hermione turned back to Draco and smirked. "You were saying what about you lack of a dating life? I remember reading all about it."

"Bugger off, Hermione. I was just joking. About the two children in the tent, that is. You don't have to take it so far." He shot her a look of disgust. "You don't always have to win."

"Yes I do." Hermione shot back. "And in case you didn't notice, I just did."

"Sure you did. If it pleases your vanity, Gryffindor Princess, then yes, you won. Congratulations, you pick your battles well."

"Drop the house thing. No body still uses that for anything anymore! Once you graduate, it doesn't matter what your house was!"

"Sure, that didn't stop you from calling me a Slytherin Arse for years!"

"I never called you that!"

"Oh really? Well that's not how the Daily Prophet quoted you!"

"In an article written by Rita Skeeter!"

"Shut up!" Bill shouted, coming in between the two wizards. Draco looked about ready to pull out his wand, and Hermione had a few painful hexes in mind for him. "Can't you two just stop?"

Sticking her nose in the air self-righteously, Hermione nodded. "I forgive you."

Draco snorted. "Very mature, Granger."

"Coming from you Malfoy, I'll take that as an apology." She sniffed.

"It was hardly an apology!" Draco exclaimed.

'We'll live with it." Bill quipped. Grabbing Hermione's arm, he pulled her away. "Let's eat or something. Anything but listen to you two fight."

"Peeta…" Katniss pulled away at the last second. "I can't." She sat down away from his cot.

"I love you."

"What?" Her eyes shot up from where they had been staring at the floor to meet his.

"I love you. I have for a long time." His voice was strained, but Katniss could hear the raw emotion in it.

"But I still don't know about me." Katniss muttered.

She knew that there was no need to put on a show here. The Capitol couldn't see them, and there were no expectations on them to perform. Peeta didn't know that, so Katniss thought she should tell him. Maybe he would stop this act… this pretentiousness.

"They can't see us or hear us, Peeta. The Capitol… they don't have cameras and sound reorders. You don't have to say anything you don't want too."

Instead of making him forget about the whole thing, telling him this only seemed to liven him. If anything, he was more determined to tell her. "Really? Good, because I was worried about telling you this with the whole world watching…" He searched her face, but apparently didn't see the awkward fear there. "Please Katniss. I do love you. If you don't feel comfortable with that, I'll wait. I could wait forever… I'm willing to let you figure it out."

Nodding, Katniss took his hand. "I will. I promise I won't make you wait forever."

Peeta just smiled and drifted back into sleep.

When Katniss came out of the tent, she saw Draco smirking at her, Hermione looking away pointedly, and Fleur and Bill looking dreamily at her, as if remembering something.

"What?" Katniss asked.

"Oh, don't mind us. We won't pry into your life." Hermione muttered, looking away.

"Thank you." Katniss was under the impression that those things had been dealt with. Why rehash them now?

"Bill, do you remember when we first fell in love?" Fleur was trying to be quiet, but Katniss over heard.

However, Katniss was known for her tact, and instead of making a scene and demanding to know what they meant, (even though she knew exactly what the connotation was.) she simply grabbed her bow and ran away.

"I'll get her." Draco moaned. He slipped out of the barrier as well, and followed the young girl into the forest.

**Once upon a time, when I was lame, I didn't review because I thought it was stupid. Then I became a writer, and I understood how important reviews really are. Now I review every story I read. Please, take my testimony to heart and leave a really simple review. Some thing little like "I love it!" or "So good!" or "Hey... that sucked." I don't particularly care if you only leave "dfghjihugytfrdrfgh." Just leave a little itty-bitty one. It's good for morale. **


	7. Chapter 7

It was easy to ignore the world when you ran. In the moment, it was more important to focus on keeping a steady flow of air into your chest and your legs had to keep pumping rhythmically, or else you'd loose your speed. She couldn't move anything but her arms and legs as she ran, so she just looked out at the lush forest, hoping that things weren't true. Hoping that her new friends didn't expect her to be in love with Peeta. Hoping that the animals weren't gone and that she could hunt. Hoping she could just go home soon. Hoping nothing else could possibly go wrong.

Draco appeared in a flurry of black. She wasn't here, but he could sense that she had been earlier. Dropping his head, he looked at the wand in his hand. It had been delivered to him by her, he thought. There was certainly some sort of significance to that. Perhaps they were made specially for each other, like compliments in an equation. He didn't think that had any romantic implications, but it didn't matter anyway, as she had Peeta. He couldn't waste time pondering though. So his being wrapped up into the inky cloud of darkness and sped along in search of her.

Katniss stopped running. She had no other choice.

"Well, well, well… what do we have here?" Foxface tilted her head to the side, scrutinizing the girl in front of her. "Come to find me, have you?"

Katniss remained silent, her hand on her bow. Why had she not bothered to grab her knife! She could have a chance at killing her right now, but in foolish over-reaction, she had forgotten.

"I better inform you, bows do little good at close range like this." Foxface smugly took in the still form of her enemy, emboldened by her lack of movement. "In fact, they do nothing."

Reaching out her arm, quick as lightning, she grabbed the bow and darted out of reach. Then she promptly broke it in half.

Katniss remained impassive.

"Oh… no reaction to the loss of your precious bow? I know it's the only way your survived this long." She sneered. "The rest of us had to use our minds and natural abilities."

"What makes you think my using a bow isn't a natural ability." Katniss said coolly, her eyes narrowed.

Foxface snorted. "Please. No matter what it was to you, it's gone, and you are helpless. By the way, how's lover boy doing?"

That was the last straw. She didn't need to have THAT thrown in her face again. Letting out a cry of rage, Katniss flew at the girl and hit her so solidly in the jaw, Foxface fell back helplessly.

"You bitc…" A flash of light and Foxface was frozen solid, mid-swear.

"You should keep disappearing from camp. You get in all sorts of trouble." Draco said carelessly, tossing his wand in the air. Lucky for you, I can always follow."

"I don't need to be looked after." Katniss snapped. "I can handle myself, especially with her."

"I know you can." Draco muttered, his eyes dark and unreadable. "But so can I."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katniss turned away. She was beginning to understand why the others were averse to this man. He was handsome and talented at what he did, but there was something else, something darker that lurked beneath the surface of his skin.

Deep in thought, she looked at the statue of Foxface. It was an odd thing to look at, but it was even odder to see her eyes. While the rest of the body was frozen, the eyes darted around madly. If her lids hadn't been frozen as well, she knew Foxface would have eyes as big as saucers.

"Why are her eyes moving?" Katniss asked, peering at them. In a moment of morbid humor, she wondered what was going on in the mind of the petrified girl. What must it be like to be so surprised and frightened, and have people looking at you like this.

Actually, Katniss decided, she knew what it was like.

"The Petrificus Tortalus curse only freezes the body, but the eyes are allowed to move. It probably cements a deeper fear if you can see what's going on around you." Draco looked thoughtful, as if this was something he had put a lot of time. "Not knowing what's going on… that's the most frightening thing of all, I should think."

"Agreed." Katniss said quietly, reaching out to touch Foxface the statue.

"Shall I kill her now?" Draco asked then. "Or do your want to?" Katniss turned around and saw him toss her knife in her direction. She caught the handle and looked at it. Did she really want to kill Foxface? Not especially. The most astute member of the Games, Foxface had done very well. It seemed a shame to kill her now under these circumstances. But would there ever be a circumstance that seemed appropriate?

"If you could…" Katniss muttered weakly, stepping away from the girl. She didn't even have to finish her sentence. Draco pointed his wand and muttered under his breath. A flash of green light and the body crumpled to the ground.

Not looking at the body long, Draco took her hand and told her to hold on tight. They disaperated.

* * *

><p>Katniss was swearing violently when they came to the camp.<p>

"Why didn't you tell me that's what we were doing?" She punctuated the statement with more obscene words. "Oh my… I think I'm going to be sick…" She vomited on the grass.

"I probably should have told you about that, but I always forget that you aren't a wizard." Draco offhandedly remarked. "Come on, into the camp." He pulled her along by her arm as she wiped her mouth with the other.

"What did you do to her?" Hermione gasped, standing up.

"Saved her life." Draco shrugged. Katniss stumbled into the middle of the camp, clutching her stomach and moaning.

"I feel completely disconnected."

"Did you apperate here?" Hermione shrieked. Draco just shrugged again. "You could have splynched her! She could have died! How could you be so stupid!"

"I don't know Hermione, maybe I'm just a better wizard than you are!" Draco gave her a haughty look. "Don't you dare try to classify me in your level."

"Did Voldemort teach you how to do that?" Hermione spat.

There was silence. Bill and Fleur looked up from where they were soothing Katniss with shock on their faces. Katniss was still retching, but even she sensed the severity of what Katniss had just said.

Draco only looked at Hermione. His expression was pained and angry, and his jaw locked in place.

"Yeh, actually. He did."

This didn't seem to effect Hermione the way every one expected it too. She softened and looked up at Draco through her eyelashes, partly ashamed and very curious.

"If you don't mind me asking… um, how do you do it?" She stammered. "Apperate with muggles and the like."

Bill whispered "Typical Hermione Granger; can't stop herself from learning anything useful." and Fleur giggled appreciatively.

* * *

><p>It had been two days, by their calculations, and it had been a rioting two days. In the time of their being in the Games, three tributes had been killed. It was the largest amount since the Cornucopia, and the Capitol was excited with the turn of events. Usually, you would watch the games all day and see little action except one random death here and a wounding there. The reviews were mixed though, as they couldn't always see why people were dying like they were.<p>

"This is the most exciting games we've ever seen." One man remarked to his wife one afternoon. They were sitting at their purple kitchen table, drinking coffee in a leisurely way.

"Oh Reggie, you say ridiculous things. These games will be over too soon, for my liking. If too many disappear at once, where's the dramatic ending?" She flipped her head, causing her green hair to fall out of it's carefully constructed beehive. "Drat… I knew I should have sprayed it."

"I like it when it's all falling apart like that. You look like a wild thing." Reggie snipped at her, making his wife giggle.

"Oh, Reggie…" Her playful mood disappeared and she reached across the table, grabbed her husbands collar and kissed him passionately. They comically kissed across the table before falling to the floor in giggles, forgetting about the games completely.

In the districts reviews were as mixed as could be. While almost everyone was opposed to the Games, they couldn't help but note the added excitement of the flashing lights and suspense.

"Dontcha' wonder what it is?" A girl quipped.

"No. Not really." Gale said, his voice low.

* * *

><p>"We can't keep sitting here like ducks, picking off who ever happens to wander by." Draco reasoned. "These Games will just last longer and longer if we do that."<p>

"So? I don't feel like jumping headlong into violence." Hermione responded. Fleur nodded, but Bill stood with Draco.

"It's going to happen eventually." Was the red-heads answer. "It might be best to get it over with."

"But we have an unfair advantage." Fleur sighed. "We're all adults who have been involved in war before. We know what we're doing."

"True." Draco nodded as he assessed his next argument. "But because of that, we can make it quick and painless."

"How horrid." Hermione sighed, leaning against a tree. From her position sitting on the ground, she could see Draco standing proudly. Being completely reasonable, she had to admit his mature behavior impressed her. His talking and reasoning went along smoothly, displaying his skill in logic and rhetoric nicely. There were always some things that Draco would excel in, and Hermione guessed this was one of those things; His arguments were superb.

"Well, seeing as we have no other way out, we'll simply have to pick the lesser of the two evils." Bill shook his head slightly in acknowledgement.

Peeta, who was fully recovered, sat in on this meeting with Katniss at his side. He still didn't get these people, but he trusted them implicitly, a trust Katniss simply didn't understand. As the conversation went back and forth between the wizards, Peeta watched and listened, enraptured and curious.

"It's a brilliant set-up." Draco mused, looking around. "This Capitol has set their Games up in such a way, no one can survive without committing some crime."

"How is that brilliant? It's just evil." Hermione questioned.

"I never said it was good, I just mean that it was well-thought out on their part. It accomplishes their goals." Draco didn't take offence at her question. He simply re-explained his statement as if he was talking to a child. That infuriated Hermione, so she remained silent.

At this lull in the conversation, Peeta found the opportunity to weigh in on the topic. "You know, just by moving around a little, we'd still manage to take out a few tributes without mass-slaughter. They mostly travel alone at this point, it should be easy with a group this large to kill them one by one."

His proposal was greeted with thoughtful silence. As they pondered his words, Hermione began to look pleased with the subject.

"So we wouldn't ambush them, but rather if we run into a tribute, we'll just… remove him?" She asked.

"Exactly. Add a nomadic nature to the camp here, and we'll be fine."

Hermione pressed her lips together, but seemed pleased with the prospect. Draco and Bill looked smug, as if Peeta had won their case, but Fleur still seemed apprehensive.

"I don't like the moving around part. It's getting harder and harder for me to be so active… You know I'm in my fifth month, Bill. I can't put the baby in danger."

Peeta's eyes widened. "You're pregnant?"

"Can't you tell?" Draco snorted.

"I'm not showing that much." Fleur muttered, laying a hand on her stomach.

Hermione looked sheepish, but she added; "Actually, you are, just a little bit."

"Alright, stop picking on my wife. She's raised a valid point though. How can we move around without inconveniencing her?" Bill asked, but Draco cut him off angrily.

"How about this? If we don't take active duty, they both could die. How would that be Weasley? Either you "inconvenience" your wife, or you risk loosing both of them."

Shocked at the bluntness of the statement, everyone looked at Draco. He didn't seem sorry, nor did he seem to care what effect this had on the Weasleys. He stood firm with what he believed was right, and that made an impression on Hermione.

"I see." Bill nodded. Fleur looked ashamed.

"I'm sorry for being so selfish." She said, her eyes flickering between Draco and Bill. "I didn't think of it like that."

"Damn right." Draco muttered. Hermione shot him a look that urged a proper acceptance of the apology. "I understand." He amended.

"So what does this mean we do?" Katniss, who had been silent up to this point asked.

"It means…" Bill stood up and pulled out his wand. "We're moving out."

* * *

><p><strong>Hey, thank you for reading! Please review and stay tuned! I'm cooking up some action for you all... I'm thinking a couple random people, and then some serious wizard duelling. But of course you'd need another wizard to for duelling... Maybe another one will surface? Hmmm. Food for thought, ladies and gentlemen. Food for thought.<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**This is my longest chapter yet, I believe, and you deserve it after I was gone for so long! Awfully sorry about that, by the way, but life got a little bit to hectic. Please read and review!**

Of the four wizards, only one had to carry anything. They wouldn't allow the muggles to carry any of their wizard gear, so they had packed it all in an enchanted bag, saddled it on Draco, and headed out. Katniss and Peeta didn't want their weapons packed away, simply because they wanted to be ready if they were attacked, but also because they were afraid the magic bag would eat up their things and never spit them out again.

That was fine with Draco. The weight of the bag was probably psychological, but he didn't want to add anything else to it for his sake.

"And the whole plan here is just to attack if we see any one?" Draco shouted from the back.

"SHHH!" Everyone hushed him synonymously.

"Yes." Hermione whispered. "That's about it."

"That's a terrible plan." He muttered.

"Do you have a better one?" The young witch snapped. Her voice was raising just slightly, so Draco shushed her. She ignored him. "You probably do. You did help strategize an attack against children once before, I believe. But that didn't end to well for you, did it?"

Draco's face became stormy. Katniss had been watching their exchange with some interest, and even though she didn't know the back story, she could sense the tension. Katniss wasn't even particularly good at understanding those types of things either, but it was so thick between these two, she could.

Bill leaned close to Hermione; "That was uncalled for, 'Mione." He whispered.

"I'm sor…" Hermione started, but Draco cut her off.

"No need to apologize, Granger. Match my malicious behavior with your own, I suppose. It makes sense." Draco pulled a face. "I suppose you enjoy living in the glorious past."

"That's hardly fair!" Hermione snapped.

"Oh, and I suppose your treatment of me has been fair!" He was beginning to shout again.

"SHHH!" Everyone shushed them.

"Do you want to be the subject of an ambush?" Fleur demanded, looking around with some trepidation.

"Actually, yes, I do." The blonde man said after some thought. "We can handle it, can't we? And then we'll be out of here sooner."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Bill shook his head. "We don't want to rush into this. Suppose they've got their hands on some new weapon? The force that got us in here might just have easily gotten something else inside as well."

"But that's unlikely…" Draco countered.

"And not to be left out." Bill responded coolly. "I didn't become head curse breaker at Gringotts because I left out probabilities."

"Is today bring up every bodies successes day?" Draco grumbled. "Well, once I shagged a girl with legs as long as…"

"That's disgusting!" Fleur gasped. "Even the French aren't so vulgar."

Katniss leaned over to Peeta and asked, "What's 'shag' mean?"

He shrugged.

* * *

><p>"By my best guess, the lake is just at the bottom of this hill. It's probably the best place to be if we want to clear out this field." Draco muttered, looking at the sun and the foliage around them.<p>

"This is just getting worse every moment. I can't believe we have to do this." Hermione moaned. "My stomach is just revolting."

"We don't have much of a choice." Draco muttered in response. It was so quiet, Hermione wasn't even sure she heard it, and no one else caught it at all.

Katniss and Peeta had been standing off from their wizard friends, listening. They were both surprised there had been no attacks during the walk here, and the whole atmosphere here seemed to have changed. Everything was so still… too quiet.

"It's like the moment before a storm." Katniss whispered. Peeta nodded.

"Oi! What's that?" Bill called, pointing up at the sky. A round, metal craft had just flown over their heads, and several were following behind. They were headed for the lake.

"Hovercraft!" Katniss had to shout to be heard over the noise of the machines.

"What are they doing?" Fleur asked.

"I don't know." Katniss responded.

"Everyone wait here. I'm going to go check it out, then we can come up with a plan." Hermione looked at everyone to make sure they weren't going to argue. Katniss was about to, but the nod of Bill made her stop at watch.

Before her very eyes, Hermione's body started to change. Watching with a mixture of horror and fascination, Katniss watched a person change from human to animal in a matter of seconds. Her body shrunk and became furry, and Katniss realized the young witch was becoming a cat.

The sound of vomiting came from behind them, and Katniss turned to see Peeta letting loose on the ground. He still wasn't as used to magic yet.

Hermione the Cat ran off into the bushes, and everyone hunkered down to wait.

* * *

><p>It had been several minutes in Bill's estimation, and Hermione still wasn't back.<p>

"I just know something will happen if no one goes to her!" Fleur shook her head. "Let me go."

Bill pulled his wife back down to their sitting position in the bushes. "You can't transfigure while you're with child. You'll put it at risk."

"But we need to find Hermione!" Fleur sobbed. "We can't just leave her!"

"I could try…" Bill muttered softly, but Fleur shushed him.

"It's too dangerous with your… condition." She said softly.

"Does he go wolfy when he changes?" Draco quipped.

Bill snarled at him, which alarmed everyone but Fleur. She just muttered calmingly and rubbed his hair. Katniss could hear things like "I'm sorry we can't find steak" and "Calm down; think about the baby." While the couple dealt with the stranger aspect of their magical relationship, Katniss turned to Draco.

"Peeta and I can't go. They'll recognize us." She stated.

Draco understood. He stood up and walked a ways away, before he started to melt into an animal figure like Hermione. Looking sick again, Peeta turned away, but Katniss started as the young man transformed himself into ferret. It seemed a peculiar choice, but as he ran into the forest and completely disappeared, she assumed there had to be a story behind it.

* * *

><p>Nothing seems like a good idea in the first few minutes of anything, and this was no different. Wondering why he had decided to save Hermione's ass, Draco muddled his way through the woods, realizing how slow you went when you were an animal.<p>

He was also trying to figure out why being a ferret was a good idea. This would probably only subject him to more ridicule, but it was a shape Hermione would recognize, and that seemed important in this rescue mission. If it was a rescue mission.

The edge of the woods came into sight, and Draco's eyes would have widened if ferret eyes did that.

There were about nine of those hovercrafts in sight, and probably more behind that. What seemed worse was the items in the hovercraft.

Bill had been worried about a new weapon or a more powerful being entering the games. Draco had scoffed, but now he regretted it. What he saw could only be the most powerful thing he had ever seen, and it was a weapon designed to cause destruction and likely be destructed it's self.

Rows and rows of children, all coming out of the hovercraft, looking scared and curious. Some cried, others whispered, but most were perfectly silent and they stood in a loose formation while curiously armed soldiers walked around, armed with strange looking guns and clubs. Every child was wearing a matching white shirt with loose brown pants; girls had their hair braided and boys all looked perfectly combed. There was one boy who stood out to Peeta, his dark hair ruffled out of place and his eyes steely with determination. Most of the children were under the age of ten, but this one looked to be 16 or so.

He was standing next to a little girl with blonde braids and a sweet face. She was holding a cat… Hermione.

"Stop struggling, kitty." The girl whispered, clutching Hermione tightly. The "kitty" was striking out and writhing furiously, but clearly trying not to hurt the girl.

"Gale, can you make the kitty calm down?" The child turned to the man next to her, but he just shushed her.

"They probably don't want us playing with cats, Posy. Put it down." He said quietly. He tried to encourage her to drop it, but she refused.

"She's just as frightened as we are." Posy muttered, and clutched Hermione closer to her chest. "I think I'll call her… Katniss. For Katniss."

Gale ran his hands through his hair and looked to the side, sighing. His breath became ragged, and he told the little girl again to put the cat down. A guard walked closer.

Draco was just starting to formulate a plan when the guard hurried over and took the cat by the scruff of it's neck. Hermione hissed and lashed out with her claws, but the thick material of the guards gloves and uniform were impossible to penetrate.

_Use a spell!_ Draco thought nastily, adding some swear words to the mix. _Why won't you jinx them into their little hovercrafts until they fly away?_ In spite of his thoughts, Hermione continued to fight physically.

_I wish I had learnt Legilimancy_. He could have told Hermione he was here, helped her somehow. But he could only watch hopelessly and hope a werewolf didn't begin to crash through the forest. Of course, he didn't really know the extent of Weasley's condition, but it seemed like something to keep in mind.

Suddenly, the guard handed the cat into the arms of a stranger in a hovercraft. Hermione was shook roughly and thrown to the floor with a thud. Draco wanted to yell at the stranger, and ask if he was stupid or something. But he realized he was anything but.

Familiar, long, blonde hair moved into view, and a recognizable smirk spread across his features as he pulled out a wand and shot a Homorphus charm at Hermione. Her form began to change back into human, and the children around were watching in horror and some screamed and fainted. Draco had enough and transformed quickly into his human shape.

"Petrificus Tortalus!" He shouted at his father. However, Lucius was to quick. He turned, blocked the spell and fired back another. They dueled only for a second, but it was enough for Hermione to regain human shape and consciousness. Gripping her wand, she fired a spell up and the guard, knocking him back into the wall.

"Reducto!" She caused the legs of the hovercrafts to explode, and fall, sending confusion into the soldiers and children alike. They were screaming and crying, ducking behind one another and some even started to run into the forest.

Lucius turned his attention on Hermione for a second, but she was already dashing away, casting defensive shielding spells behind her and blowing soldiers into the air. When he turned back to his son, he found a wand in his face.

"What are you doing here?" Draco snarled.

"I could ask the same question." Lucius's lips turned upwards into a sickening grin. He smelled like roses… but there was a faint odor of blood lingering beneath it all. "But I suppose it's not bad if you are, as long as you want to help me."

"I could never help you again." Draco spat. "Helping you nearly killed my mother, ruined my life, and destroyed my happiness."

"That's rather harsh, son." Lucius spread his arms out as if waiting for a hug. When Draco made no move except push his wand even closer to his father's neck, Lucius chortled. "Really, Draco…"

"Diffindo!" Draco shot at his father, who immediately began to clutch his throat in pain. Blood leaked through his fingers and dripped onto the ground beneath them, staining the robes they fell on.

"You… bastard…" Lucius gurgled through the blood lumping in his throat. His body was convulsing and blood started to sputter out of his mouth. Taking advantage of that, Lucius spat it onto his son in disgust. While he seemed to be in extreme pain, there was an oddly confident look in his eyes that bordered on insanity. Although about to land the final blow, Draco didn't have the heart, or the courage, to get past that look.

"Conjunctivitus." Lucius whispered. Draco barely dodged in time, but the spell hit a child behind him. She screamed in pain and gripped her eyes, scratching at them until blood seeped through. The tall boy ran up to her and tried to calm her, but she couldn't stop screaming.

Draco looked between his father and the child and realized two things; One, Lucius seemed to be healing very quickly, and two, he had to help that child. The mad glint in his father's eye became more apparent as the choices he had to make became clear. Help the child before she bleeds to death and risk a killing by his own father or…

There was no "or." There was only "help the child."

Throwing a few curses at his father, Draco ran over to the little girl. He tried a "Finite Incantatum" but it only eased the pain. Coming up behind him was his father, cleared of the wounds that had once covered his throat, and smelling more like blood than before.

"Avada Kedavra!" Draco behind him. Lucius blocked it and laughed.

"Is that all you can do?" The older Malfoy laughed menacingly.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco finally sent his father's wand into the air. He grabbed it and tried the Finite Incantatum again. The pain cleared from the child's eye. "Take her into the forest, there will be someone there to help with her eyes." he told the boy he recognized as Gale. "Go now!"

The boy didn't argue, only called softly to the severely bleeding and possibly blinded little girl.

"Come on, Prim. Follow me." He took her hand and tried to run her into the woods, but the soldiers were regrouping. Draco had to fight his father and couldn't help, but luckily, Hermione had circled around.

"Into the forest!" She called to all the children triumphantly. She blasted the guards, but one managed to start shooting with his odd gun. Bright colored balls of light flew out of the end and came in contact with a group of children running frantically. They disappeared like smoke.

"Expulso!" Hermione shouted and pointed her wand at the gun. It exploded, sending it's owner flying. She made quick work after that.

In the meantime, Draco had been dueling his father.

"Incarcerous"

"Lanlock"

"Really Draco? Sectumsempra!"

"Stupefy!"

Draco ran and dodged behind items while Lucius followed behind, maniacally sneering at his son. Finally, he stopped. All around them were several abandoned hovercraft, and unmoving soldiers. Shuddering at the thought, Draco realized that if the children didn't turn to smoke when they were killed, there would be small bodies lying about as well.

"I can't kill my son." Lucius muttered, his eyes becoming vacant. "Don't make me kill my son!" He screeched suddenly, and tearing at his hair. Now he looked more like a hunted animal than the hunter, and he gave Draco a look with those hunted a tortured eyes. "Run!" He pointed at the woods and screamed. "RUN!"

Then he collapsed on the ground, his body shaking and writhing.

**There's that action you were asking for! I'm not very practiced at writing action, so you'll have to excuse the lack thereof, but I gave it my best shot! Review and tell me how you think I could improve!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't know how you'll feel about it, but I'm thinking about changing the rating to M for violence. Maybe it's just my generally sensitive nature and tendancy to write really bloody action, but I feel that might be a good idea. But just because I'm slightly disturbed at my own writing doesn't mean anything. Read on and tell me what you think is best. I also plan to add a little bit of Dramione here soon. ;)**

"What the bloody he-" Bill snapped.

"Stop swearing, Bill." Fleur interrupted. She looked at the two figures coming up a hill at them, herding children along, all of whom seemed in a panic. "What the bloody hell!"

"You were supposed to scout and then report back! What happened?" Bill waved his arms. The wand in his hand was emitting sparks, causing the children around him to be even more frightened.

"Lucius happened." Hermione answered. "Fleur, can you help this little girl?"

While the girls healed the girl with bleeding eyes called Prim, Bill and Draco tried to figure out what to do.

"Right now it's just chaos." Draco explained. "Hermione and I managed to get rid of most of the guards and my… father, but we don't know when reinforcements will show up, if at all. And we simply can't make out why all the children need to be here. What could possibly be achieved?"

"They'll just be murdered here by the remaining tributes." Bill shook his head. "We have no choice but to protect them."

"How? They aren't likely to listen to us, seeing as we're an abnormality in their eyes." Draco snorted. "They're slated for destruction."

"Maybe that's the idea. Distract us, appeal to our human nature or something." Bill pondered things for a second. "We can only help those that will be helped."

"Where did Peeta and Katniss go to?" Draco asked, just now noticing their absence.

"They saw people they knew or something. Thought they'd try and help round everyone up and try to explain things to them. They have a better chance at it than we do."

At that moment, the tall boy Draco had noticed earlier came up to them. He was sweaty and breathing hard, pulling a little girl along by the hand.

"Are you Bill?" He asked suddenly.

"I am." Bill nodded in affirmation. "And who are you?"

"Katniss told me to bring my sister to you. Said you'd watch her while we round up other district 12 kids." The boy responded. "Katniss says that you people can help us get out of here."

"Well we aren't running a babysitting operation." Draco snapped.

"Do you have much of a choice in these conditions?" Gale retorted, just as steely as Draco. He then gave his sister strict instructions not to leave these people at anytime. After she nodded, he gave Draco another look before running off in the direction of the rest of the children, shouting orders as he went. To the two wizards surprise, the children began to follow him.

"My name's Posy." The little girl said, tugging on Bill's shirt.

"My name is…"

"Weasel. His name is Weasel." Draco interrupted, smirking.

"That's a funny name." Posy didn't catch the glare that went between the red head and the blonde. She only looked around for her brother, scared, as little girls usually are without them.

In the course of half an hour, a small band of children had gathered around them. Fleur and Hermione were in their element, coddling and comforting, while Draco and Bill slyly tried to heal various scratches and injuries from behind trees. If the children were shocked to find their cuts healed in a matter of seconds, they didn't show it.

"When will Katniss get back?" Hermione looked through the trees.

"I'm just as sick of running a day care as you, Granger, but what's the alternative?" Draco's adrenaline was only just started to ebb, and he just wanted to take a nap. That would have been easier than watching all these little brats.

"I fail to see how that answers my question." Hermione snapped back. Her eyes drifted listlessly over to Bill and Fleur, who were trying to distract and entertain the children with "magic tricks." What the children thought were simple, slights of hand, were more real than they knew.

"What happens when Katniss gets back then?" Draco raised an eyebrow.

"We'll figure out what to do." She said simply. "I mean, I already have a vague idea of what we should do, but she's the one with more experience and understanding of the situation…"

"I have an idea. Let's organize a child army and call it, just for laughs, _Dumbledore's Army._" Draco smirked. "Then we just hope they don't die."

"You prat!" Hermione pulled out her wand, forgetting the children just a few feet away. "You selfish, unfeeling, mocking git! How dare you suggest anything like that when you had made it your life mission to destroy… I should hex you right now!"

"I'd like to see you try, Granger." Draco growled in response. He was, for some reason, picking a fight with her. Maybe it was to get his adrenaline back, maybe it was just because he felt desperate to rid his mind of the image of his father, writing on the ground…

A burst of light shot from Hermione's wand and flew straight at Draco. He ducked, and promptly shot back at her.

Hermione grunted something and sent a volley of sparks over his head. Some of them managed to get through his hastily thrown together shield and burnt his flesh. Moaning in pain, Draco sent three rapid-fire spells at her, all of which she blocked easily.

"Rusty, Malfoy?" She smirked.

He didn't comment. He just sent one more spell at her.

"Expelliarmus!" Both the wands flew from Hermione and Draco's hands and into Bill's waiting one. The children were cowering and shrieking, Fleur trying to calm them with her Patronus dancing around. There was also a memory modifying charm floating around and calming everyone down.

"What is wrong with you two? You work together one minute, and at each others throats the next. I have a mind to do something drastic."

"What's drastic to you, Wolfy? Will you bite me?" Draco growled.

Bill gave him a nasty glare. "Never mind Hermione. I realize why you want to kill him all the time."

"I don't want to kill him!" Hermione gasped. "I just want…"

She couldn't finish, because she didn't know what she wanted. She just knew that Katniss and Peeta were now running toward them, the tall boy behind them and several other, older children. A couple of them were recognizable as tributes. One of them was a large kid with skin as black as night, holding the hand of another little girl just as dark. Hermione was struck with the tenderness of the picture, but didn't say anything.

"This is Thresh. He's a tribute from 11, and this is his sister." Katniss introduced. Everyone knew at once that the sister had come with the hovercraft only minutes before, and she had a massive wound on her arm. She was crying, and the blood all over her body seemed to frighten her. "Can you heal her?"

"Yes. I can." Fleur came forward and talked to Thresh quietly. Hermione was trying not to eavesdrop, but she could head Thresh express his fear at Fleur's methods.

"Then we have Gale, from our district." Katniss gestured to the older boy who had been the first to drop off his sister and the wizard day care. "He understands what you are."

"I don't like it, but I accept it." Gale said. "Just don't use your hocus-pocus on me."

"And we have other tributes; Cato, Glimmer, Marvel, and Clove. They all have siblings in this group." Katniss beckoned them forward and they rushed into the group of small children, holding some of them close. Draco saw a tear escape from Cato; and it annoyed him for some reason.

"Aren't there more children?" Bill asked, his brow furrowing.

"There are many running away from us and hiding away." Peeta said. "But they aren't living long. The arena is coming to life."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked.

"It means that every nightmare the Capitol can think of, they're sending out." The young man's face paled. "We ran into monsters like you wouldn't believe."

"There was a manticore." Katniss said, giving Draco a look. "And many others. It seems like you wizards will have more of a challenge than we thought."

"Well shi-"

"Don't swear, Bill."

Screams echoed throughout the forest all night, and no one could sleep. The protection spells set up around the camp couldn't stop noise from coming in, even if they did keep away some of the beasts. A blast-ended skrewt ran by once, and Hermione thought she caught a glimpse of a giant spider out in the woods. All of the older children just stayed up and watched the woods in a circle. Conversing quietly, Draco managed to get to know Marvel and Glimmer, both of whom had parents they utterly despised. They compared stories.

Hermione struck up the unlikely comradeship with Clove, who admitted to being quite curious about magic, and proving to be an excellent listener. Cato was still very reclusive and in spite of Bill's attempts, nothing could be induced. But no matter the friendly nature of things, the atmosphere was extremely tense.

"Anyway, wizard legislation is really strict on when muggles are permitted to see magic and know of it's existence. There are loopholes of course, such as in situations like these where everyone is in mortal peril… OHMYGODRIC!" Hermione stopped her lecture to utter a blood curdling shriek. Everyone turned and looked at the place her finger was pointing, many emitting similar sounds and several dissolving into hysterics.

A Nunda was standing just outside the protective spells surrounding the camp. It's appearance alone was not enough to cause screaming as had just occurred, even thought any giant leapord cat was bound to frighten any who beheld it. Rather, it was the blood streaking it's face and coat that made it gruesome. What was even worse was it's prey, clenched tightly in it's large laws.

A little boy was writhing there, vomiting blood and making guttural noises to no effect. His body was mostly hidden by the feral jaws of the cat, but he was missing an arm and his face was so torn, they could only tell the gender by his genitals. Bloody rags barely held on to his body as the cat chewed on him for a second before spitting him on the ground. After a feral snarl in the direction of the camp, the massive cat bound away into the dense forest. The boy was still shaking and writhing on the ground, his intestines falling out of a gash on his stomach.

"_Avada Kedavra!" Draco pointed his wand at the boy and after a burst of green light, the suffering ceased. _

"_Oh…" Hermione felt light headed. Several people were crying around her and shrieking. She couldn't focus on anything though, and her vision became clouded and she fell backwards. Strong arms caught her, and the last thing she sensed was absolute terror._


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm baaaaaaack! I do want to apologize for taking my sweet time, especially when this chapter was already mostly written two months ago. But you probably didn't need to know that. Lemme start over-**

**I'm baaaaaack! Sorry I took so long to update, but you all know how school gets near the end. And I just don't have the time to keep up my story as faithfully as some do, but I do try. I'm going to try and make an update tomorrow as well. It's summer now, and I think we all deserve a little magic and gore, don't you? Enjoy... Even though this is really just a filler chapter. Oops!**

Hermione didn't stay unconscious for long. Exhaustion, coupled with emotion stress and lack of a steady diet had all been brought to light as soon as the shock of such blatant gore and death was brought before her eyes. How was it any different than the horror she had faced before, no one could guess, although Fleur (adept at understanding the deeper meaning of women) was able to hazard a guess.

"She was expecting it last time, and she had years to prepare. It's different now, as she's just been thrown into it so suddenly with no idea what could be in store, who the monster is, or where the goal lies. That doesn't suit her." After looking around at the huddled children playing a makeshift game, she added something else thoughtfully. "I'll bet her biological clock is playing a small role in this as well."

"Isn't yours?" Bill raised a brow.

"Yes… But Hermione's been taking the brunt of everything. I've just been siphoning it off myself." Fleur twiddled with her wand.

"Did anyone ever tell you that your English has improved unbelievably well?" Draco asked.

"Yes." Fleur said proudly.

"Yet, I didn't understand a word of your diagnosis." The blonde shook his head. "Funny isn't it?"

He received a cold glare from the mother-to-be, to which he returned a smirk.

"How pregnant is she?" Glimmer whispered to Draco.

"Enough to be irritating, but I'm not sure of the exact numbers." He answered lazily.

"I'd guess about 5 months." She retorted. "Definitely an irritating time. I remember my Aunt Marigold…"

In the time it took for this conversation to happen, Hermione had successfully woken up. She saw the tent all set up, with people going in and out of it, baffled and pleased. There seemed to be a lighter atmosphere now that it was day; the focus was no longer just on surviving the terrors of the night, but conquering the mysteries of the day. Pushing her self off the blanket on the ground, she looked around blearily.

"Oh look, her biological clock must have woken her up." Draco laughed. The other tributes laughed with him, and Hermione wanted to throttle him again.

"Shut up, Malfoy." She muttered.

"Oh, 'Mione, do you need anything?" Fleur was at her side immediately.

"A glass of water would be nice. But I can get that for myself."

Fleur pushed her back down. "Oh no, we need you well rested, chief. I'll get it. _Accio cup! Augmenti!"_ She handed Hermione the cup of water, and the water felt good on the parchedness that had taken up residency in Hermione's throat.

The only tribute not sitting next to Draco was Thresh, the big black man from District 11. He was looking at Hermione curiously, and it was unnerving to the girl in question, and the blonde who was watching covertly.

"Why did you call her 'chief?' You're older and several others have the skills to lead us. Why the girl who fainted?" He asked finally.

Fleur didn't look startled by the question, even though Hermione felt a surge of humiliation at the question. "She's done this before." Was her only response.

This answer didn't satisfy Thresh, who only badgered Fleur for more information. "How could she have done anything like this before? She seems weak and unable…"

"Don't call her weak." Draco snapped, standing up suddenly, his robes billowing out at the sudden movement. "She might be the strongest person I know."

Everyone was silent.

"Well, except maybe my mother. And Potter. And well, myself, obviously." Draco added carelessly. "And I was always impressed at how much Rodolphus could lift when Aunt Bella had him under the Imperius curse for laughs…"

Although he tried to cover it, the damage had been done. Hermione felt some of the protective shields around her go down, and Fleur was smiling warmly in his direction. The only person who didn't look convinced was Thresh, who started questioning Draco.

"How is she so strong?"

"I… uh… Well, Rita Skeeter wrote a book about her. You could try reading that for a clue."

"That," Hermione said. "Was pure garbage. That trilogy she wrote about Harry, Ron, and I was nothing near the true story."

"Oh." Draco frowned. "So you weren't star-crossed lovers the whole trip? And you didn't try and seduce both of them at once while you were off who-knows-where?"

Hermione shook her head vehemently, and was about to say something else, but Draco interrupted her again. "That's a shame. It was my favorite part of the story, and it was written so convincingly."

Bill was chuckling in spite of himself. In the middle of his demonstration, the white lilies he was trying to grow for the amusement of some of the younger children started to turn blue, and then purple, as if they were being strangled.

"That's it!" Hermione shot up so quickly, her head spun, but she ignored it. "Why haven't I thought of it before, it seems so obvious now!"

"Rather than muttering what you think you know, why not enlighten us?" Draco snapped.

"Why can't we grow food? We can make flowers grow easily, but why not fruits and vegetables? It'll help feed everyone and provide some independence from the Arena."

"There is no independence here." Cato muttered. He was ignored the same way he ignored everyone else.

"These won't last, Hermione." Bill said quietly. "I had to conjure the seeds, so they'll just disappear."

"How do we know Grotum's Third Law of Conjuring applies here?" Hermione said excitedly. "It only works in the Wizarding world because of the restrictions set up by the ministry in 1694, when the wizard world was becoming reclusive. This place is unaffected by the ancient spells set up out there because it's built differently and apart from that." Hermione picked up her wand and conjured a few seeds, which fell into her palm. She then quickly interred them into the ground and made a pumpkin, a batch of cucumbers and a watermelon grow.

"Think of the consequences!" Bill reached out a hand to stop a pre-teen boy from grabbing the cucumber. "What happens when we enter into the real world again? We'll be nourished yes, but what will happen to that nourishment once the Third Law gets to us…"

"Actually, I think it's the Second law of Conjuring, and I see where you're going with this." Draco stood up and left his whispering gang.

"No, Draco, I'm pretty sure it's the third." Hermione spat.

"Ah, as I recall, it is the Second. The third is about conjuring animals with features that aren't indigenous to their species."

Bill interrupted their argument quickly. "All I'm saying, Hermione, is that even if we can eat it here, once we're back under the influence of whatever law it is, the nourishment will leave us immediately and we'll just be completely emaciated."

"Again, I have an idea." Draco added, and Hermione's face barely had a chance to look crestfallen. "The Theory of Interment suggests that once anything has reached a point of no return, you're safe from Grotum's laws."

Fleur giggled and Bill gave Draco an odd look that combined disbelief and amusement.

"Is it so hard to believe that I can come up with an option?" Draco snorted.

"Only when that option is utterly insane. That theory was proposed by the late Archibald Pruitt, near the end of his life; A time that everyone agreed he had gone a bit senile. It can't exactly be disproved, so it stands as theory, even though it's completely ridiculous!" Bill threw his hands in the air for effect, but it failed to effect Hermione. She was actually considering the prospect with some interest.

"It's true that there has been no place to properly test the theory… but it does follow many other fundaments of our world, so it can't be that far off the mark." Hermione muttered. Draco looked at her appreciatively.

"If anything, this will stave off the darkness of starvation for sometime. I say we try it." Draco looked at the muggles sitting on the ground. "Ah, 'Dig in,' as you say."

They didn't need to be told twice. Growing bored of the discussion which they could have no input, eating seeming like the best thing to do. Thresh used his knife to cut the cucumbers in half and feed them to his little sister and her companions.

"I still don't know about this." Bill shook his head. "It seems like too simple an option to be safe."

"Those kind are often the best, and most overlooked." Draco responded for Hermione, who sickeningly realized she was about to say almost the same thing.

"Yeah…" She murmured instead.

Draco called watch with Hermione that evening, and they patrolled the perimeter cautiously while everyone fell asleep. Once it seemed safe enough to sit down, they awkwardly sat next to each other, ignoring conversation, and consequently each other. His comments about her still rung in her ears and her casual acceptance of him made him queasy. They were entering territory largely misunderstood by both parties, but such is the curse of unlikely comradeship.

"Do you really think the Theory of Interment will work?" Hermione whispered. "After all, it's never been tested."

"No." Draco had to look away so she wouldn't see his smirk.

"Don't tease." Hermione scolded. "This is too serious to allow teasing. It seems like our goals are even harder to reach now."

"They are." He said.

"And I'm not sure we even know what we're doing anymore. Everything's changed too quickly, and now we have so much more to deal with than before. It's going to be impossible to manage."

"Probably."

"What do you think we should do?"

Draco was quietly stunned. She didn't defer very often to someone else's opinion, much less his. Looking up at the sky, that glittered with it's panels of stars, Draco mused.

"I think we should fight."

"That's it?" She asked. "That's all you are going to offer me?" Scoffing, she turned away. "You have a mind that is presumably so great. Use it."

Draco felt the brief companionship he'd had with Hermione vanish in a puff of smoke like a cheap magic trick. His defenses came up again, and he felt the old condescension creep into his voice. "Oh, of course. I so often forget that my intelligence is at the beck and call of Miss Hermione Granger, Witch Extraordinaire. I apologies for not meeting your needs and solving your problems ma'am, but it seems I'm too occupied with my survival. And more recently, the survival of a bunch of urchins."

Hermione looked back at him, a glare on her face. "Just don't let it happen again, Mr. Malfoy."

And she stood up, and walked away.


	11. Chapter 11

**Here. This chapter isn't as long as my last one, but it has a little bit of everything for everybody. A little romance, I little drama, a lot of action... I think you'll be pleased mostly. So here is my second chapter in two days. I hope this is begining to heal those wounds I inflicted when I didn't update for several months. But I'd also like to thank some of my reviewers really quick, because they really encouraged me to start writing again. **

**Special thank to:  
>Funshine Tonks<br>Kitty  
>Willow101<br>CTsky313  
>MagykjayEmmax<br>YourSweetAsianGurl  
>IxxcazxxI<br>Chloe  
>Moixxx<br>Marieke  
>Cataloo465<br>takesome-nightlockbtch (Although I did find this one a bit insensitive. You might want to work on your form, dearie.)  
>Guest<br>ThisRandomPersonXD  
>Oheyitsme<br>NorthernLights25  
>Nerd<br>(Awesome name by the way.)  
>Anani<br>Billy  
>Clovemutt<br>Paperships101  
>TeamFinnick38<br>BookWorm**

**You guys are splendid specimens of the human race! **

"Hermione, behind you!" Fleur cried, as she shot a spell into the chaos.

Hermione ducked and shot a couple curses out blindly, but she hit her new attacker and began to focus on saving the children.

The creatures were faceless and cloaked like dementors, but they didn't have the same aura of coldness and despair like those monsters. They hissed in high pitches and screamed occasionally, causing shivers and muscle convulsions. To those with sensitive ears, like the children, there was no defense against them. Only the older members of the group could protect them.

One little girl tripped and fell, crying out as she skinned her knee. Hermione rushed back to help, but the faceless monster got there first. Screaming it's delight, it reached down to touch the girl, hands beginning to glow. The closer the hand got, the more emaciated the girls body became, and when he touched her, she began to rot away entirely. The little girl, known as Juniper, began to screech and wail, her tiny body thrashing out and grabbing the arm the touched her. Hermione couldn't watch any longer, she could only move the rest of the children as far away from this place as possible.

Draco shot only the strongest and most fatal of curses at the monsters, but it took two or three of them to do any damage at all. Once the magic and strength overcame them, they exploded into dust and fire, leaving a sulfurous scent behind. If any of the dust landed on your skin, as it was apt to do, it caused stinging and pain. Grunting with effort of killing another beast, Draco dodged the mess left behind, and jumped in front of Katniss instinctively as a shining hand reached towards her. He quickly shot it off in a green burst of light, but both were aware he had just saved her life.

Cato and Clove seemed to work in tandem, stabbing the enemy and protecting the backs of one another. If the mortals could stab the backs of the creatures, they would weaken and stumble, giving time for the head to be chopped off and the body would disintegrate like the rest. Glimmer danced around with a spear, poking and thwacking the monsters until they turned around to face her, giving her comrades the opportunity to strike. Gale, Thresh, and Peeta flung their knives and swords around in such a fury, you couldn't tell one from the other.

But the victory belonged to Bill as he backed away from the fighting long enough to summon a single spell.

"Fiendfyre!"

The flame burst from his wand so quickly he stumbled back, but he focused just enough to control where his flames traveled. Wizard and tribute alike had the sense to run out of the way and the serpent of flames wove around the shining monsters and destroyed each one methodically. But the helpfulness of the flames quickly turned towards them.

"Run!" Bill shouted, as he struggled to control the flames stemming from his wand. "Now!"

Everyone but Fleur did as they were told, but she rushed to his side and whispered something in his ear with all the urgency of a woman in fear of loosing her husband. He only nodded, and she pulled out her wand, her arm shaking only a little.

"Augmenti Doublos!" She said feebly. A torrent of water shot from her wand, and killed the fire nearest, but did little good. Taking a deep breath she shouted it again, with some added help. "AUGMENTI DOUBLOS MAGYCUM!"

Water now poured from her wand, but rather than splashing onto the ground as her last attempt, it soared up and followed the dragon of flames. It appeared to consume the beast, but the fiery serpent broke off into pieces and began to shoot through the forest at high speeds. Following the people who had run for safety.

* * *

><p>Draco and Katniss had taken half the children and run, herding them along like sheep. They didn't look behind them until they could barely hear the sound of the whipping fire and the screams of the monsters damned to the flames.<p>

"Couldn't we apparate?" Katniss asked, clutching her side. "That thing you did when we were in one spot, and then another-"

"I know what my own skill set is." Draco panted, annoyed and exhausted. "But I can't apparate with this many people. I'd only end up splinching them. Besides, I don't want to get too separated from everyone else."

"What if those monsters appear again? They just walked through your wizards walls!" Katniss clutched her head, trying to make sense of all of this. But she couldn't think as the silence was filled with the terrified cries of the children and pleas for water. Draco did his best to sate them, but neither he or Katniss knew how to comfort the children.

"Thank you, by the way." Katniss mumbled as she sat down with the children.

"What for?" Draco asked, placing some basic protection spells up around them.

"You did save my life earlier." She looked over the group of kids, about to say something else until she noticed one little girl in particular was missing. "Where's Prim?"

"What?" Draco whipped his head around. "She ran with us didn't she?"

"No, oh no, no, no… Prim!" Katniss ran through the barrier, shouting her sisters name. The children began to cry again, and Draco told them to be quiet and not to move. He placed one of the older looking ones in charge and then ran out after Katniss.

"Prim! Prim!" She screamed so loudly, it wasn't hard to Draco to find her. But that meant it wouldn't be hard for something much worse to discover where she was.

"Katniss!" Draco caught her around the waist and pulled her back. She sobbed and screamed her sisters name again, tears running down her dirty cheeks. "Hush, Katniss, you'll only kill your self. You can't do this. Quiet…" He pulled her backwards even further, his arms tightening around her waist protectively. The wild girl in his arms began to go limp with her sobbing.

"She can't see, she was blinded… she'll be so scared… I promised I'd never leave her again… Prim…" Katniss crumpled into Draco's embrace.

He wasn't used to seeing this girl, usually so resilient, fall apart with weakness and vulnerability. So he comforted her with promises and condolences. "We'll find her, it'll be okay." He kissed her hair. "Just don't worry, she'll be fine." He kissed her forehead. "Maybe Gale or some one else picked her up." He kissed her tears. "You'll see her again, don't worry."

She kissed his lips.

* * *

><p>"Duck!" Hermione and Gale found themselves in charge of the rest of the children, but things had become chaotic. Shooting through the trees like bullets were balls of fire, lighting everything in it's path. After seeing one such bullet coming, Gale threw himself over Hermione and two little girls, so the ball would fly over without touching them. But it singed his shirt and skin and he cried out in pain.<p>

"Episky." Hermione waved her wand briefly, forgetting that Gale wanted none of their magic touching him.

He wasn't sure how to react at that moment, with the forest around him burning and the children crying. There were screams all around him and the hell they wallowed in at this moment didn't leave room for impractical discomfort. Already another ball of fire was shooting through the air towards the children in the front. Many of them scattered, but a small boy, gripping the arm of his sister, didn't. He just gave a yelp of surprise, and was quickly consumed.

Hermione screamed and shot water from her wand all over the burning figures, but it was too late. Her eyes set with steel, and she absolutely refused to let another one of her charges die.

"Protego Horribillus!" She cried, shooting purple light from her wand. It met with the fire and exploded into harmless sparks that floated down to smolder on the grass.

She looked satisfied and pulled a few girls up from the grass. "Let's go."

* * *

><p>Peeta and the rest of the tributes ran, but they had all seen fire in the arena before. Ducking and rolling out of the way came as a second nature to them after being faced with the chaos of the arena before the wizards arrived.<p>

Marvel looked over the hill and saw the pooling water from the river. "This way!" He called.

They all sprinted towards the cool water and jumped in, feeling the soothing feel on their various burns and cuts. If fire shot their way, they all just ducked under water and held their breath.

"Isn't this just like good, old times?" Glimmer laughed. "Before everything went crazy."

"Old times, yes, but they were never good." Marvel sneered. "I was all ready to kill you all, but now we're working together to survive."

Cato smirked. "Aside from the idea where you thought you could kill me, I have to agree with you. Those weren't good times at all. These times… these are almost better."

Peeta looked at all of the people lounging in the pool and realized how different they all were from when they had met. Willing to work together to kill was one thing, but working together to help each other survive was another. The sheer respect he had in that moment for those wizards overcame him as he realized they were the reason all of the internal violence had stopped.

"We'll need to get back to the others soon. The children will need our help." Peeta said, looking around the forest for a sign of anymore fiery balls. Aside from the burning grass and trees, he couldn't see any.

That's when every one noticed that Clove was crying.

"Juniper!" She sobbed. "That was my sister!" She covered her face with her hands and shrieked her mourning.

Cato's eyes, once so hard, softened immediately. Moving from his side of the pool next to Clove, he wrapped his arms around her.

"I lost my brother too, in the first fight. One of those guns got him." He said. Marvel and Glimmer suddenly realized their siblings would be in grave danger right about now and looked to Peeta, who looked at Thresh.

"We should head out." The big, black boy said. "Now."

Everyone nodded except Clove, who didn't care about the world outside of her bloody, dirty hands. So Cato scooped her up into his arms and cradled her against his chest, and he carried her like that all the way through the burning forest.

**There. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I know this chapter is short, but I couldn't think of an easy way to segway into the action that occurs directly after all of this is found out. So I'm setting it up for madness. And I think you'll understand once you finish the chapter. I myself was a bit shocked at it all, and it was on my original outline. **

**Thank you for the reviews!**

No one spoke during the quiet walk around the arena, not even the children. Draco led the way, keeping everything clear and Katniss followed behind. Bow drawn, her eyes were peeled for more than just a feral attacker. Neither of the two leaders thought about anything but finding the others and making sure they were safe. A thought would stray, like a wisp of hair caught on the breeze, but in embarrassment and focus, they were contained.

A whimper came from within the group. Draco shushed it and told it to be calm. They kept walking.

After less than thirty minutes, and the children walking slower and slower, Draco called for a break.

"You can look if you want." He said quietly to Katniss, as he herded all the children into the arms of a large oak tree.

She nodded and was gone without a sound.

Standing before them and covered in moss, the big tree looked as if it had been growing there for ages. It's massive roots and deep grooves made ideal places for the children to sit and cuddle into the warm wood for a rest. Conjuring cups and water, Draco had them all drink, and then checked the tree for any dangers in itself. There were none, so he secured himself on a low branch to watch and wait.

Katniss. The thoughts came unbidden and refused to leave until they were thoroughly dealt with. What had they done and why? The kiss had been spurned on by grief and panic, not by mutual affection and time. Yet still, it had happened. Nothing would change the fact that it happened and that things were different now, whether they wanted them to be or not. Aside from that, she was much younger than him, but four years at least. But did it matter?

"Mr. Draco, can we see some magic tricks?" A little girl asked, her voice tired but hopeful.

"Sure." Draco looked at the girl and pulled out his wand, flipping it on his fingers as he often did when he showed off. Her little blonde braid loosely hung on her shoulders and her left eye was black, with scars around the edges. Her other eye was gone completely…

Prim.

* * *

><p>"Katniss? Why are you alone?" Gale ran up to her and took her arms in his hands, pulling her towards the makeshift camp Hermione had constructed.<p>

"I…" Katniss gulped. "I was looking for Prim. I didn't see her in my group when I knew she had been there. So Draco let me look for her…"

"That bastard shouldn't have let you leave alone. It's too dangerous." He snapped. "You'll have to stay with us."

"But what about Prim?" Katniss shrieked.

Hermione came out of the tent, eyes alight with curiosity. "What's going- Katniss! What on earth!"

"I'm looking for Prim."

"Oh, no need to worry. She came into our group just a few moments ago. Said she had gotten lost … Oh."

Katniss ran forward into the tent and saw the little girl sitting in the corner with a blonde braid and a missing eye.

"Oh Prim!" Katniss through her arms around the little girl.

"Hello Katniss." Prim smiled.

* * *

><p>When Fleur opened her eyes, she saw her husband's eyes blinking at her, and she knew she would be fine. She blinked back, unable to speak, when she felt the most unbearable feeling on her legs. It was warm and sticky, some dried, some still oozing down to the dirt below.<p>

"Bill…" She croaked, the nauseous feeling of fear beginning to form like a rock in her stomach. "Bill… The baby… Where is my baby?" She began to cry, feeling the death inside of her womb. The cold, clammy feeling covering her abdomen spread to her chest and gripped her heart and she wailed into the sky. Bill took her hand and kissed it and pressed his face into it, his tears seeping through her finger.

The moments of grief seemed to expand and grow thicker and thicker with every second. Fleur's cry's grew louder and Bill's body shook with horror and pain as they sobbed together; man and wife, mother and father. Bill cursed the forces that brought them here, cursed the monsters, cursed himself, cursed every deity he knew. Fleur just continued wailing, as if the sound of her cries would reach her baby's soul as it floated into the next world for another mother to hold.

But all grief ends at some point, and is replaced by the heavy feeling of despair. The couple stood in the ashy remnants of what was once tree and grass and tried their best to clean off the blood from her legs, but were mostly unsuccessful without water.

"Here." Came a little girls voice. The tear and dirt stained couple turned around to see little Prim holding a bucket of water out to them. Her face tilted to the side and smiling widely. "This will help you."

**See? Madness. **

**Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Alright, this is my normal length. I try to fit in at least 2000 words per chapter, so sorry about the lack of those in the last chap. Just enjoy the extra gory detailing in this one, that has a slightly Sherlock twist. Honestly, this chapter is just weird, but I promise some romance at the end. Also, to those of you wondering whether this is a Dramione or Draniss or whatever, I promise, it ends well. There will just be a little bit of romantic chaos in the mix, and confused hearts tend to do things they never really intended. You'll all see what will be. **

Magic, Clove decided, was judiciously unfair. Why should Katniss have four sisters when she herself couldn't have any? When she and the rest of the tributes stumbled across a lost and battered Prim, Peeta had picked her up and carried her, asking no questions at all, even though Clove felt uneasy about the girl's constant smile and lack of character.

But then they ran into Draco and found another Prim waiting with him. She shrieked at the Prim in Peeta's arms and hid behind the blonde wizard, trembling. Not that it changed anything, as Peeta's Prim did nearly the same thing, calling the other Prim "Imposter" and "fake!" Clove decided right then, since no body was assuming anything about imposters, that their Prim was the fake one. Grabbing the little girl out of Peeta's arms, she held a knife against her throat.

"Any last words, scum" She hissed, pressing the now dull blade into the child's throat.

"No! Katniss! I want Katniss!" She cried. Even Draco's Prim was wailing in shock at seeing herself held hostage.

"Clove!" Peeta tried to push her back, but Clove growled and pressed even harder, drawing a thin line of blood. Death by a dull knife would be very painful.

"She isn't real! Don't be sentimental!" The girl with the knife taunted.

"Listen to reason, Clo." Cato murmured. "You're upset, but only Katniss can decide which is the real Prim."

Draco added his opinion. "Why not make it easier on Katniss? This will only add stress to her situation."

"Exactly." Clove snapped. "Now let me get on with it."

"Sacre Bleu!" Fleur, still rather bloody and teary, pointed at the scene in front of them, one hand holding another Prim's tightly. She shrieked as well and buried her face in Bill's leg, crying out the same thing. "Imposters! Fakes!"

"Merlin…" Draco swore. He looked around, pulling out his wand and pointed it at his Prim, who froze in fear. Bill did the same to his own.

"Our apologies to the real Prim, if she's here…" Draco started, only to be interrupted by three, childlike voices calling out; "Me! Me! I'm the real Prim! Please, you have to believe me!"

Draco continued after shushing them. "Clove, let us deal with her. We have a rather effective way of dealing with these sort of things. Petrificus Totalus!" Bill echoed the spell quietly and two, identical Prim statues stood blinking at them with terrified looks on their faces.

Draco did the same to Clove's hostage and took the bleeding girl away from her.

"We need to find Katniss." said Draco.

* * *

><p>So now four Prim statues stood in the tent as Katniss surveyed them all, her eyes watering.<p>

"How will I be able to tell which is the real Prim?" She asked, staring at the braids that fell down all of their backs.

"Ask them something only the real Prim would know." Draco suggested standing close to her. Hermione watched their closeness and stiffened. Since when did they have such familiarity, she wondered.

"If this is a trick by the Capitol, and undoubtedly it is, then they should all have some amount of the same memories. Especially if they're using magic now. It will have to be something distinctive that makes Prim different from the rest.

Gale stepped forward, examining one Prim delicately. "And there will be no defining features, as they're all exactly the same."

"Not quite." Hermione pondered, coming into the fold. "Look underneath their jaws, on the left and right side."

Gale peered under the Prim he and Hermione stood by. Just under her ear was a long, thin scar that ran from the curve of her jaw to the front, where it stopped in a pink, puckered circle. Hermione touched in carefully and pulled her hand back quickly. Where her finger had touched, the scar began to disappear in that area.

"Nobody touch them!" She announced.

"Prim doesn't have a scar like that." Katniss shook her head. "That one isn't the real."

Marvel grimly stepped up to the child and asked "Are you completely sure?"

Katniss winced. "Yes. I have to be."

He and Clove took the statue girl outside.

"Check under the chins of the others." Ordered Hermione.

"Clove had her hands all over one of their necks. That scar would be long gone." Draco pointed out.

"Then we'll have to use a different method of elimination for that one." Hermione mused. "But one other should have some of the scar under her chin. Check anyway."

The second Prim found to be fake was the one that found Hermione and Gale. Most of her scar had been healed by Katniss' hugs, but bits and pieces remained. Thresh carried her out into the yard, and came pack with Marvel and Clove, who both looked morbidly pleased with themselves. Their hands were plastered in blood and puss and a black oil.

"Their hearts and lungs and such were all machine." Marvel announced, holding out a little whirring piece of mechanics that poured a little bit of blood out a nozzle. It dripped onto the group with a sickening splash, making everyone but Marvel and Clove themselves cringe. "Now that it isn't connected to the body, it's starting to die down, since it can't get blood from their system."

"That's incredible…" Draco mused, staring at the object in the boy's outstretched hand. "Quite a feat of mechanical and magical engineering. Our world is years away from that kind of technology."

"That's horrible!" Katniss gasped. "You want digging through a person's body?"

Peeta looked like he would vomit, and even Cato and Thresh looked uneasy. Bill had his eyes closed as he rubbed his head and Fleur… well, Fleur still grieved the loss of her child, and hadn't been paying much attention to the proceedings.

"This is such a waste of time!" Glimmer shrieked. "We have to get out of here, and these… "Prim's" are distracting us from our real mission!"

"That is probably their purpose." Bill growled impatiently.

"Well, we have no way of telling one Prim from the other, so we'll just have to observe them as they act with us." Hermione waved her wand, and both the girls collapsed at Katniss' feet, clinging to her legs.

"I'm real, I swear I'm you sister!" One cried, fisting the loose material on the pants furiously.

"Katniss, Katniss!" The other moaned.

Gingerly removing herself from both of them, Katniss asked if they could be taken away. Peeta obliged, carrying the girls away as they fought and struggled to get back to the girl they both called sister.

Ignoring the drama as best he could, Draco followed Marvel and Clove outside to take a look at the bodies in the grass. Both had been cut open in the abdomen, the remnants of screams still on their faces.

"We kept them away from the camp so the kids wouldn't be completely freaked out." Marvel justified the distance. "Being this far away from the group is a safety hazard, but the bodies will make excellent bait for any monsters."

Draco just pressed his lips together in a thin line and knelt down to examine the bodies. Lying inside the mess of muscle and tissue, little engines kept puttering, feeding on the blood of the bodies.

"They wouldn't die at first," Clove explained. "The just ran away and screamed. That's how we knew they were different."

"I see the cords connecting all the machines…" Draco carefully pulled tiny cables from the slime. They were braided together, but abruptly cut off at the end. "My guess is that these were connected to the heart?"

"Yeah. When we cut them, the kid died." Marvel shrugged.

Draco looked at the mechanics leading up into the throat when he got a sickening idea. "Give me a knife."

Clove handed him one of her sharper blades. Slowly, he began to make long, deep incisions on either side of the throat and face. Once he had reached the hairline on both sides, he stuck his fingers under the skin at the neck and began to pull it upwards. As muscle began to tear from it's covering, little cogs and springs began to show themselves as they protruded from their engines. None of these continued to work like the other manufactured organs, and Draco concluded they were specifically powered by the heart. Before he actually reached the face, Draco turned the head to the side and peered into the dark red abyss. Just as he suspected, a tiny green light flashed periodically, and a tall, thin wire ran up the back of the girls head. Gritting his teeth, Draco stuck his fingers into the nape of the girls neck and felt through the supple, dripping tissue until his fingers reached the little black box.

"What is he doing?" Clove asked in disgust.

Marvel shrugged.

Sliding his fingers around the contraption was easy because of it's slimy coating, but Draco could also feel the hum of magic inside the little box, and proceeded carefully. His first attempt to pull it out failed, as his fingers slipped right off. The second attempt proved a bit more fruitful, and he managed to get the box into the air.

The exposure immediately set it to beeping.

"What the-?" Clove peered at the little box, but Draco pushed her away.

"Run!" He shouted. Leaving caution behind, Draco just yanked the box out, the small wire coming with it. Draco was disgusted to notice that when the wire finally came loose, it seemed to have some pull in the nose, which twitched as he pulled the wire out. Committing it all to memory, Draco wadded it up in his hands and threw it as far away from his as he could and threw himself over the other body of Prim.

It exploded midair.

"What… the… hell… was… that?" Marvel sputtered.

"Don't swear." Draco muttered.

The face of the Prim they had been dissecting was covered in soot now, settling in with the blood and machine oil, creating a syrupy mess that ran down the side of the face and dribbled into the mouth.

"Will someone please explain what all of this means!" Clove shrieked. Her hand was tangled up in her hair, and her face was beginning to loose it's frightening look. Mixed with the grief of loosing her sister and killing mechanical girls, nothing was starting to feel normal or even sane.

"The Capitol might be showing off, or engineering machines of war. Either way, we're the testing ground." Draco began peeling the face off the girl again, this time being extra careful to avoid bombs set off by air exposure. It was a shame the last bomb had also been the transmitter. Had they been able to study it's transmission signal shadows, they might have been able to discover a way out. The traces left behind by such air waves were easily traced by magic.

"What would be the point of that?" Clove asked.

"We probably won't know until we get out of here." Draco snapped. "Oh Salazar…"

"What?" Clove and Marvel both leaned down to see what Draco saw.

It was another face, slightly rotting underneath the exterior of Prim's skin. Rather than having Prim's pristine white complexion, the face was dark and freckled. It didn't fit with the eye correctly, nor did it seem to have a place on the skeleton, other than seniority.

"Oh my…" Clove shuddered. "This poor girl… Was turned into Prim."

Draco's eye twitched, but other than that, he showed no emotion. Where Prim's other eye should be was just a hole, usually covered by her closed eyelids. Except for a cable that ran through the space to another machine, it was empty.

"We need to get back." Draco stood. Clove nodded and Marvel just sighed. They followed him away from the bodies with a mixture of confusion, anger, and absolute terror.

* * *

><p>Draco found Katniss behind the tent, her face streaked with the last ribbons of light peeping through the trees. Highlighted on her face were the dried tears that had speckled her face all day, but they didn't match the steely look on the girls face as she watched for any more threats to her friends and family.<p>

"Would you be bothered for company?" Draco asked quietly.

"What? Oh, sure. Sit." She gestured at a place next to her, and he took it quietly.

"Are you feeling quite all right?" Draco implored. "You've had quite the day."

"I'll keep breathing." She answered, not looking at him as a blush began to creep onto her cheeks. There had been parts of the day more odd than others.

"I suspect you will." Draco nodded, looking off into the distance she looked into.

Katniss would never admit it, but Draco's odd accent had a calming effect on her busy mind. On the others it was sometimes annoying and hard to understand, but Draco spoke with such clear, glasslike tones you never missed a word. Every sound seemed to be formed delicately and thoughtfully, as if he put a whole mental workload into every bit of it. Yet he spoke quickly and often, which made Katniss assume his mind never shut off.

She had watched him clean off from his examination of the bodies, removing the blood and grime. He had a grim expression on his face the whole time, and she marveled at the change in him. When they had first met, he seemed rotten and cruel, without scruple or care. But as the situation evolved, so had he. Now he was serious and calculating, keeping every aspect of the case in his mind and always utilizing his abilities to save and protect. He had begun to care more than he ever had to before, and in these times of constant distress, he had risen to the challenge like a man.

"You are brave." She said at last. He turned his head sharply to look at her, but she hadn't moved.

"I suppose I am, somewhat." Draco quipped.

"No, really, you are. Nobody does what you do for the rest of us."

"I beg your pardon. Not even Hermione in all of her intellectual splendor? I daresay she is the leader here." said Draco.

Katniss stiffened. "Perhaps she is. But you are the reason she can be a leader."

"You're a leader too." Draco correctly read her limited body language. "It's just that she leads us, while you lead everyone else. Rulers in tandem, per say."

"If I had a choice in the matter, I think you'd be the leader of everyone." Katniss mumbled.

"And I'd do a bang up job of that. No, I don't think I'll presume to fill that role." Draco picked at the grass at his feet, pulling up large clumps at a time as Katniss began to chuckle.

"You're so modest!" She smiled, finally turning her head to look at him. "You don't see the extent of your own skill and power!"

Draco turned his head to look at her. "I'm not so much modest as I am practical. Knowing my past and what I can handle, I've realistically made my decision to stay away from leading anybody."

Katniss nodded, but soon realized just how close their faces were, which brought back the small memory of their time in the forest.

"Why did you kiss me?" She asked.

"Why did you kiss me?" He prodded her shoulder.

"I don't know." She blushed.

"Well…" Draco leaned forward. "Neither do I."

Katniss shook her head, even though Draco's forehead nearly touched hers. "Girls don't like hearing that sort of thing."

"Neither do men. The truth is always touchy to those who seek lies, yet usually the truth brings the most desired results anyway." He reached up and cupped her cheek, so she closed her eyes and just focused on breathing.

"What's the desired result?" She whispered.

"I don't know if you don't." He whispered back.

Katniss kept her eyes closed tightly, but leaned forward in spite of herself.

Lips met in a soft, quiet way that neither alarmed nor gave cause for caution. They just held onto each other the way arms would, or the way Spring holds on to it's flowers. A hand tounched her face and breifly stroked it, before deciding to rest on her neck. Suddenly, though, in a moment that caught the two off guard, there seemed to be pressure and urgency, and while neither were a stranger to the sensations inside, they didn't accompany the expected and revered feelings that both so desired on these moments. So Katniss pulled away and stood, leaning against a tree, shaking her head quietly.

"I can't…" She whispered. "I just can't."

"I shouldn't have… I'm sorry." He looked down at the ground, where the grass had been momentarily flattened by her presense and was now slowly beginning to pop back up, unbending it's stalk to rise into the sky like nothing was wrong.

"No you shouldn't have." Katniss didn't mean it to sound harsh, but it still reverberated inside Draco's head, growing crueler and crueler with every run.

"It won't happen again." He promised, wishing he could go back to normal, like the grass.

"Absolutely the wrong time for this sort of thing." She muttered.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Agreed. It was premature."

"And completely inappropriate." Hermione snapped. Both figures turned and looked at the head popping out of the tent's only window.

"Hermione…" Draco started.

"You can't exactly explain that away, can you Draco? Even with your silver tongue and raging charisma, you simply won't find words that take the severity of what you two have done. Don't bother explaining yourselves." Hermione glared at Draco, and Katniss felt compelled to speak up.

"I'm sorry," She began, hoping it would soften the look on the witch's face. "Everything has been so strange and…"

The glare Hermione gave Katniss was nothing like the one she granted Draco, but it was no less murderous. Rather, it had an envious edge that threw Katniss completely off guard and sent her apology away on the breeze.

"In this situation there is no time for personal drama." said Hermione. "You both need to come to the front now. We have a problem."

"Why didn't you say so?" Draco stood up quickly, dusting his trousers and pulling out his wand.

"I thought you had heard the screams, but were just ignoring them for the sake of your love making." Hermione snapped, and pulled her head inside, closing the window tightly.

One quick glance at each other, and Draco grabbed Katniss's hand and they ran around the tent to see what was going on.

***Edit: June 27, 2012. I had a little make out scene and as I thought about it, Hermione's words echoed in my head. It was completely innapropriate and I think OC. They wouldn't have done anything crazy like that, and I just want to apologize. So I made it softer, more innocent, and open for emotion recourse. I apologize to anyone who thought it was weird. Because I thought it was weird. I just really wanted to write a make out scene you know? But it was awful. So there is, changed.***

**Ahhh, the sweet sounds of complete insanity. Review please! (Also, the final count put this chapter at just over 3000 words. New record for me as longest chapter I've done.)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Basically, I've been watching too much Doctor Who, and I'm dying to add some of that flavor.  
>I know you'd all love me more if I were a regular updater, but you can see that I'm pretty bad at that. Well, if you can't love me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best and all of that nonsense. Honestly, I'm sort of a sap. Sorry I take so long. I have no excuses. <strong>

"She did it!" Two Prim's pointed at each other identically, both with the same horrified expression on their faces. Bill was crouching next to the lifeless body of a little boy, the red marks of tight hands still around his throat.

There were only about fifteen children left now, ranging from four to fourteen, and all of them were terrified. Draco leaned down to the eldest and asked if he could tell which Prim did it.

"I can't tell." The young man shook his head. "They look the same and after one of 'em did it, the other attacked her and they had a tussle, knocking each other about so much I lost track." The boy shook and his voice trembled as he talked. He had seen many things here, and although this wasn't the most gruesome, it happened closest to him.

"That's alright…" Hermione pet his shoulder gently. "What's your name?"

"Taragon." The boy shook his head as if to clear it, and he blinked several times. "Taragon Ackley."

"How old are you?" Hermione asked.

"14." He ran his hands through his hair. "I'm from District 9."

Hermione looked at the tan, dark haired boy and smiled grimly. "Do you have any family?"

"My only brother died the first day. Both my parents were killed when they took us away. My uncle's a peacekeeper and my aunts Alby and Saury both live in the Capitol. Mistresses both, I think, for some rich men."

Draco pursed his lips, trying to understand Hermione's questioning. Where did she see the profit?

"I need you to go into the tent and find Bill. Tell him Hermione sent you, and that you are the one. He'll understand. He's the big, red headed one." She pointed at the tent, and Taragon left them.

"What was that?" Draco whispered to Hermione, who gave him a rude stare.

"Secret project, Malfoy. I need you and Katniss on this case…" Hermione rolled her eyes, as she saw Draco still wanted information. "He knows things… I, uh… probed his mind a bit."

"You're a Legilimens?" Draco exclaimed. "You!"

"I sort of picked it up." Hermione shrugged it off. "Now, you and Katniss, on this case. Katniss, we need to identify Prim quickly, so we can know what can be done." Leaving these orders in the air, Hermione walked back to the tent, bringing children with her in a small herd.

Katniss came over and examined the little boy's neck. She looked stoic, but Draco could see the horror in her eyes, lurking just behind the pupil and dwelling among the places of imagination.

"My Prim wouldn't have the strength to do this. She is far too weak to have developed the physical strength required to maintain a choking hold."

"That's not true!" One of the Prims stepped out. "You always thought I was weak, but I'm not. I'm just as strong as you ar- oof!"

Katniss tackled the girl and pressed her hand onto the girl's face. Straddling her, Katniss pulled out her knife and held it at the girls throat. "Draco, check the other one's neck. For that device you found."

Obeying, the wizard approached the other Prim and wrapped his fingers around her neck. She just stared at him with her big, doe eyes, trembling and breathing unsteadily. Draco tilted his head to the side, eyes taking in the soft skin for any marks or signs of cutting into the flesh. He saw nothing.

So he squeezed.

Prim gasped, fingers going up to grab Draco's hand, scratching at it as her eyes shifted and watered and her breath became fleeting. Meanwhile, his fingers began to poke at the skin, but he felt nothing besides her natural muscle and bone.

"She's clean."

The Prim underneath Katniss gurgled a bit before breaking out into a laugh. Katniss pressed the blade closer into the skin, but she couldn't kill her sister's look alike just yet.

"She isn't clean, and she probably never will be. They got her just like they got me… You'll never know when she'll surface again, but I can tell you that she already has. She killed the boy… She killed him!"

Katniss brought the blade down fast.

To conceal the body, Draco cast a quick bedazzling hex and then turned away as Katniss embraced her sister and cried. Prim sobbed into her sister's shoulder and Katniss copied the little girl. Two sisters poured into each other the similar feeling of loss and gain, celebrating and mourning all at once. Draco didn't dare intrude, so he walked away. Yet he still felt an ache inside to have someone with whom he could embrace without shame. He didn't know where the feeling came from, but he knew it must have been festering inside for sometime, probably hiding by a similar type hex he had cast.

"Malfoy!" Hermione stuck her head out of the tent and whispered at him. "Draco, get in here!"

He obliged.

* * *

><p>"What the bloody hell is all of this?" Draco looked around at the room, bathed in the blue light of two monitors. Taragon sat in front of them, typing furiously on a keyboard . "And I thought I was out of the loop?"<p>

"We decided you could come in." Bill tapped something with his wand, and the second screen changed from a complex-looking diagram to a series of algorithms and code. Bill waved the wand again, and the numbers began to scroll down the screen, flashing and correcting themselves into the right answers. "We think we need your help."

"Where did you get these things?" Draco tapped the side of a PC. "You can't just conjure this!"

"No, you can't. Unless you're Curse-breaker for Gringotts." Bill's eyes were red and puffy, his cheeks sallow and sunken. He looked like a man defeated. "I use these to keep curses in order and develop curse breakers. They work for small things… not usually anything of the caliber we're involved with."

"So where have these been for the past few days then? Why didn't you break these out before?" asked Draco.

"It isn't that simple. There were some wards in place to keep these from functioning full potential. Since they are largely magical devices, they were not easy to bring up. I didn't talk about it because I didn't want to excite anyone. But once I managed to bypass the safety and decode the specialized spell work, I managed them. Now I just have to hack into the main electromagnetic feed, which runs on a Muggle force."

"That's all fine, but why is this kid needed?"

Taragon didn't even blink, but just continued working on the screen, occasionally reaching up to move things with his fingers and change levels of productivity and power intake.

Hermione answered this time. "When he lived in District Nine, his father worked in allotment control. This meant that he worked with computers, and his son did as well. They managed all of the food harvested and grown, and had very special access to the Capitol database. Taragon, here, happens to be a sort of computer's expert because of it, and knows how to access the Muggle's Capitol central unit."

Draco snorted. "Well that's convenient."

"Yes." Hermione agreed. "It is."

"So what am I here for?" Draco asked.

"Basically, you're the best wizard here…" Hermione started.

"Second best." interrupted Draco.

"Pardon me?"

"I'm just second best. You're a much better witch than I am wizard."

Hermione blushed. "Not in this field, I'm not. We need you to help set up protection wards along our progress. We're working a sort of mineshaft operation, by tunneling our way through the underbelly of Capitol awareness. We need you to set up the supports, so system overrides and security scans don't knock us down and alert them of our activity. It will require… a great deal from you."

"I like the sound of it. A mixing of technology and magic… sounds beautifully entwined." Draco smirked.

"Yes, well, we aren't the first. I think the Capitol itself is already running on a similar system. And you don't understand what we'll require from you. You'll practically be immobile for parts of the work." Bill interjected, seeing that Hermione couldn't find the words to say it. "Your mind and power will actually be within the system. That's what I'm setting up now."

Backing up, Draco began to protest, but couldn't think of anything to say. "I'll be… inside a… computer?"

"It's a network technically. It's just as physical a world as ours, although you can't bring you body." Bill shrugged. "I'd go, but I have to manage."

"Have you done this before?" Draco enquired.

"Yeah, a couple times. There's a sort of portal that only magic can open. Complicated business really."

Draco looked at Hermione, who looked sheepish. "And you can't go because…?"

"I'm a woman. For some reason, the computer doesn't accept my chromosome branch count, and it won't let me do it." She kicked at the floor. "I wish I could do it though. I've never been in a network."

"Neither have I…" Draco mused. "I'll have to tell you about it."

**Yes! I've made it that bizarre. Please. Excuse my creative genius. I swear it all makes sense to me. Even though this chapter is a tad bit short. Please review and tell me if you absolutely love it or hate it. If it really is bad, I can take it down and change it. But I'd rather not. **


	15. Chapter 15

**Thank you all for your reviews! There are more than I expected to see when I logged on today, and I am so tickled pink! You guys. You are the greatest. **

**Also, I wrote this while listening to a mixture of the Harry Potter 7 part 1 soundtrack and the Batman begins soundtrack. If you want the full effect, or just want to see inside my head, I suggest you listen while reading. That is all. **

* * *

><p>Hermione saw Draco's limp form and sighed just a little bit. His mind was off in a great unknown place she had never been, and never would go, and she couldn't help but feel awed. She wanted to be jealous and feel slighted, but rather she just felt admiration for the adventurer in front of her. He explored the great unknown without fear.<p>

If she was perfectly honest, the whole situation was sort of turning her on.

"Hermione, we need you out here!" Bill called.

"I'll just be a minute!" Hermione called back.

She stared at his face, peaceful and quiet.

"You are so brave, Draco Malfoy." She muttered. Then, leaning down, she caressed his cheek and smiled. Then she pressed her lips ever so gently to his…

* * *

><p>Hermione woke up, sweating and breathing hard. Clutching her chest and rubbing her forehead, she tried to slow down her breathing, but nothing changed. Draco Malfoy now inhabited her mind, all because of one little dream.<p>

She rolled to the side and out of her makeshift bed roll and stood to walk away. Grabbing her left elbow, Hermione walked to the edge of the camp and looked at the wards she had set up. They kept predators and monsters away, but they also kept her caged inside. Bill, Taragon, and herself stayed with the tent and the networks and Draco's body, protecting from incident, while everyone else stayed on the prowl, fighting physically.

Hermione wanted to be with them, since she saw her position in the group-dubbed "Tech Camp" as being futile and useless. They had decided, spur of the moment, to use her as a life anchor to Draco, just to keep him grounded on earth. She would feed him and make sure he could work comfortably from his lifeless body, and if she ever went to far away, Draco would completely disconnect and be lost in the cyberspace. The thought terrified Hermione, thinking about Draco being all alone and floating in the nothingness. Yet the thought of stability and action less waiting seemed just as alarming, and Hermione realized how torn she was.

So she went into the tent, with it's blue, flashing lights and diagrams and algorithms stuck to the wall. Different gadgets made from makeshift materials either conjured or found lay haphazardly around the tent. And then, right in the center of the Victorian Steamship-esque mess, someone sat in a chair. Someone who affected everything Hermione did these days.

His blonde hair fell across his face, greasier than he usually allowed it to be. His mouth hung slightly ajar, and something shiny shimmered on the edge. Grabbing a greasy hand rag, she wiped the drool and couldn't but smile at her seemingly dominant position.

"Draco Malfoy, out like a light, and no one but Mama Granger to keep you alive." She cooed, brushing his hair away from his forehead.

_I can hear you, you know. _Draco's voice suddenly filled her head and Hermione gasped, snapping her hands away from Draco's face.

"What?" Hermione laughed nervously, thinking of all the things she might have said or done to dormant Draco that might be embarrassing.

_I just figured out how to communicate with you, obviously, but I've been able to monitor everything that happens around me in the physical world. _

"Fascinating!" Hermione exclaimed feeling the warm, fuzzy feeling in her head that was Draco's presence. "Do you know what's going on then?"

_Sort of. _Draco mused. _There isn't a whole lot to do except basic wards. I did expect it to be more exciting…_

"So what have you done so far?" She asked eagerly.

_Well, every time their seems to be an attempt at breaching, I've disguised our tunnel, but that has only happened twice. Usually I'm just causing routine security checks to skip over and report to normal. _

"It still sounds exciting."Hermione whispered.

_Not nearly as exciting as that dream you've been having. _Draco chortled. _I can pick up brain wave-lengths from in here, too. Quite fascinating. _

"How dare you pry into my mind!" Hermione whisper-shrieked.

_I can't help it. They just come to me. For instance, Bill is dreaming that Fluer's baby is born a fire-breathing dragon. You might want to wake him soon, since it sounds like a nightmare. And that Taragon kid… He dreams in numbers and equations. Fairly dull. Your dreams are much more exciting. _

"I can't believe you. Couldn't just let it lie, could you?" Hermione snapped.

_Hardly. I'm glad to talk to you though. It get's very lonely in here. _

Hermione stayed silent. She still felt mad about the brain invasion, but the conflict in her head about Draco consumed her more and more.

"I'm sure it does." She conceded finally.

_You have no idea. Sometimes I think I'll go mad by the uniformity of it all. I can't even describe it. _

"Try." urged Hermione.

_Right. Well, I can see anything, but I know in my head what it looks like. Kind of like a big, empty room with doors, everything in white and blue…_

"What kind of blue?" Hermione asked quietly.

_Really, really light blue. Like the sky when the sun it completely up. And every door has to stay locked except the door I'm about to go through and the doors I've left behind. When something tries to come in the locked doors, or if something it coming towards them, I just mentally hold them at bay, and a couple little spells that Bill keeps sending into my mind that let me push it… It makes no sense to you, does it? _Draco asked, exasperated. _I feel so lost in here, yet so powerful. I'm sort of reminiscent about it, because that's how I felt… back then. _

Hermione pursed her lips and sniffed. "I'm sorry."

_No, no, don't apologize. This is sort of like "Draco coming to terms with his inner demons" time. It's painful, but probably helpful, so I don't need you pity. _

"I wasn't offering you pity. I was offering you empathy." Hermione corrected gently.

_What's the difference? _

"Empathy is the mutual understanding of a shared circumstance. I know what it's like to face your inner demons in a soulless and terrifying way."

_Will you tell your story?_

"Maybe someday."

_That's not very fair of you. _

"Perhaps not, but generally speaking, I've never been very liberal in sharing my life changing moments. I try to keep them to myself." Hermione smiled a little.

_I've noticed that. _Draco quipped. _Oh, excuse me, security scan. I'll be right back. _

The fuzzy feeling popped out of her head and Hermione had to hold on to a table to steady herself.

All the next day, Hermione and Draco talked. Sometimes Draco would talk to Bill or Taragon, but most information could be relayed through Hermione, so he stayed in nearly constant communication with her. They talked about each other, they talked about memories, they made half-hearted plans when they realized they had something in common. Politics, religion, morality, and quidditch… they talked about it all. Having an endless amount of time on their hands seemed to suit both of them very nicely.

_We could probably be like this forever. _Draco mused.

"Pardon?" Hermione laughed, causing Bill to look at her like she was some kind of loony. He only heard half of the conversation, she reasoned. It's enough to make anyone sound like a looney.

_You know, you and I, just talking. It's kind of perfect. _

Hermione frowned. "I'd rather not. I like seeing you move and walk and talk. Of course, once you're in your physical body you become so much more annoying."

_Maybe. You'd have to give me a chance though. _

Hermione grinned. Give Draco Malfoy a chance?

"Maybe."

* * *

><p>Katniss felt on fire in that moment.<p>

She could feel Gale's presence only a few feet away, as his body mirrored hers in their silent trek. Hunting together in the green forest, just as dense as before, and somehow more alive. Every sway of grass, and every bend of a leaf could be predicted and used to see and manipulate the world around them. Close your eyes, and your mind could tell you, just by feeling the breeze and smelling what lingered on it, exactly what was coming around the corner. Thorns and protrusions caressed her legs, reminding her of life and the frailty of humanity, but also reminding her how strong and deadly she was about to be.

This was living.

The prey bore no resemblance to any creature Katniss ever saw. The feathers on it's wings and belly would have you believe a bird, but the size, naked chest, and woman's head only confused you. She appeared beautiful, but if you looked at her directly, she seemed to grow grotesque and deformed, mouth opened in a perpetual screech. Her breasts sagged and drooped, as if they were full but never touched. Her stomach appeared swollen and raw, covered in molting, brown feathers. Nothing about her gleamed in a fresh, maiden like way, but rather a sheen of grease and oil perfected her features. As the clawed bird's feet of the creature scratched the ground in agony and anticipation, Katniss drew back her bow to take a shot.

_Twang!_ The bow landed in the exposed skin under her right wing. The creature shrieked and wailed, turning it's deep, brown eyes in the direction of it's assailant. She screamed in outrage and spread her magnificent wings, taking off from the ground immediately and swooping in on Katniss' hiding place.

"Gale!" Katniss called, still unafraid. To be honest, she was growing steadily more alarmed in relation to the bird-woman's proximity.

"On it!" He called back, momentarily distracting their prey. The turning of her head, gave Katniss the opportunity to roll to the side and dash away, just as the talons slashed through her previously occupied space. She kept running, making noise and causing a distraction, while Gale came up behind it.

But the creature had sharper ears and keener senses that either of them realized.

As she turned around, mouth open in a screech and wings spread to envelop her pursuer, Katniss slid another arrow into her bow and let it fly into the harpy's neck. Gale performed the same maneuver his partner had executed only seconds before and slid under the wings and next to Katniss. He grinned at her before twirling his knife in his fingers and leaping to the other side.

_I am alive!_ That grin said. Katniss had to grin too.

* * *

><p>"You realize you could have been killed." Fleur reprimanded. "Harpies are fierce and dangerous."<p>

"Why do you think we did it?" Gale still had his grin on. In spite of the dirt and grime, Gale couldn't help himself from relishing everything.

"Besides, it would have attacked us sooner or later. I'd rather be the one in control." Katniss remarked.

"Do you promise not to get hurt?" Prim asked.

Katniss smiled again. "I'll promise not to die, Prim. Just like I've been promising since you were a baby."

"I suppose I could help you if you got hurt. Although I don't know… I can't really see very well anymore." Prim's one eye looked down at her hands. The other, covered by a conjured eye patch, remained useless and empty. Fleur promised they could fix it once they got back to the real world and went to the "hospital" but Katniss didn't put any stake in that. As far as she could tell, Prim had lost her eye for ever.

Fleur interrupted. "Well, can you focus on killing edible things? We're running out of resources, and the children need protein." She stoked the blonde hair of a little girl eating zucchini. "They don't like vegetables very much."

"Of course not, they're kids after all." Gale smirked, ruffling the hair of Posy, who had cuddled into his leg.

Katniss grinned and looked out at the young ones in their care. It was moments like these that made the threat seem less imminent, and the danger like a memory that could be captured on the wind and carried away without the slightest struggle. She breathed in, and she breathed out, watching Peeta and three other tributes construct a temporary structure. When it suddenly assembled itself, they sent Fleur a dirty look. She smiled and shrugged, tucking her wand back into her jacket.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Hermione was beginning to feel uneasy.<p>

"Don't you think something would be happening?" She looked at a monitor screen and tried to puzzle out the patterns. "If all of these represent the attacks from the time of the children, there has been an obvious delivery to them. They happened almost on a schedule, like the arena was preset to deliver them at a set time every four rotations or something.

"In the time we've been split up, the pattern has stopped, and the only threats have been the left over monsters wandering the area, and we have to provoke them into a fight. What are they doing?" She grasped her head and massaged her temples, trying to force her brain to work, to find the answer.

"Starving us out maybe? Emotionally that is. If we're tense all the time, and nothing happens, we'll wear out. Or if we become to complacent…" Bill clicked one of the patterns and examined the individual traits. It was the shining, hooded creatures with the hands that made you rot. "This was the fiercest attack, based on lives lost, intensity, and difficulty overcoming it. At this point, I think the attacks grew weaker and weaker until they reached the robotic children. Those were easy enough to overcome, so based on the numbers, it was feeblest attack."

Draco decided to weigh in now, filling Hermione's head with that pleasant buzzing feeling. _So either they're out of options, or they are stocking up for something massive. _

Bill nodded after Hermione repeated the words, her voice shaking.

"That's sort of what I was thinking." The red head turned to the other computer, where Taragon was busy tunneling. "How close are we, Tara?"

"As soon as I breach this final security jam, we'll be well on our way. But the firewalls will be tougher from here, so… Mr. Draco will have to focus."

The buzzing feeling left Hermione as if someone were releasing her suddenly from a hug. She gasped a little and was almost disappointed. Almost. Taragon suddenly sat up, and Hermione had to smile. Draco now invaded the boy's brain.

"Yes, just Draco. Sure." Taragon sputtered. Then the buzzing feeling was back in Hermione's head.

_No need to be so formal. Kids these days. _

Hermione laughed. Yes, the buzzing feeling was back in her head, right where it belonged.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, I'm trying to be careful about how much lover-ing I put in this story, just to keep it realistic. But honestly, I'm not used to writing straight up drama and excitement. So all I want to do it write a few ships and love scenes. Would you all really hate me if I did that? I'm trying to balance it by writing a Dramione on the side, but I haven't worked on that one in a year, so my self-help isn't working. You all tell me what you want. I'll try my darndest. <strong>


	16. Chapter 16

**Right, so thanks for the two reviews on the last chapter. That was splendid, and Cookie05 and 567random deserve medals. You are both such an encouragement. As for the rest of you, great compensation for the pain I've had to endure would be a review. Two, for each chapter.  
>My arrogance aside, thank you all for reading. That last chapter was rather lackluster, but it was a nessacary evil. And to sort of explain what is going on in this chapter, the beginning is told in snapshot form, as if it were a montage of images and thoughts. Probably not my best approach at getting information across, but I read it in a book and wanted to try it. <strong>

"Hermione, his condition is non-meliorating! Can you connect with him?" Bill tried to hold the monitors steady as the tent shook and sparks flew. The lights flickered, and Hermione gasped at the sudden darkness, but she held onto Draco's hand, trying to reach into his mind. Taragon was still fiercely typing away on the keyboard, shouting commands every so often for Bill to follow, but too often, Bill was busy flinging hexes out the tent door and mending wards. The howling out side the tent grew louder, as if the wind were right around them, swirling and pulsing like a living being. More sparks, more noise, more distraction; Hermione couldn't connect, and Draco just kept getting paler and paler, the sweat on his forehead drying up until he was cold as ice…

* * *

><p>"He's still in there, but his body is dormant." Bill pulled the sheet back over Draco's face, and pulled Hermione away from him. "Only he can save himself now. I told him the exit."<p>

"But his body was the anchor! If it dies, he can't escape!" Hermione sobbed. "Someone has to care for him!"

"He has sometime. Just…" Bill stopped as Hermione broke away from his grasp and sat down hard next to the mound under the sheet.

"I won't leave him." She pouted, her eyes watering. "He… can't be alone."

"We need to find the others, 'Mione." Bill coaxed. "We need your help. They have to be warned."

"You can do it without me being there all the time." Hermione gave a feeble laugh, and Bill smiled a little. "We already know that the arena has expanded, so we don't know the full extent of the field. Since they aren't in the previously understood dimensions, they are somewhere outside. Odds are they've only just figured it out, so they'll be cautious in proceeding further. There, your field is narrowed." Turning away from Bill with a little sniffle, Hermione reached under the sheet and grabbed the ice cold hand of Draco Malfoy.

She was still trying to connect.

* * *

><p>It was as if water and sprung up to make a wall of glass, shimmering and reflecting the eerie glow of the fake moon. Rippling along, as far as the eye could see, the wall of water trickled over itself and shone bright. It was still virgin to perception, new and clean, bristling in the anticipation of its first manifestation. No one knew she was there, watching in the trees for a sign of life, either side just as thrilling as the other. Her orders were very simple, so simple she merely laughed. She could do whatever she wanted. She giggled and her waters rippled across her long, long body. She was the divider between lives. Her role was one to relish in and take power. Her old form, if she remembered correctly, had been weak and easily destroyed, limbs like rubber and paper, easily molded to fit the will of The Master. But it made her so powerful…<p>

It called her Prim.

* * *

><p>Laughing and running were not Thresh's most commonly indulged past times. Not unless it included his sister.<p>

"Come on! You can't catch me!" She giggled. "Threshy!"

"I'm comin' Amnity! I'm gonna getchu! I'm gonna getchu!" Thresh ran forward, clapping his hands and laughing as his sister disappeared around a tree only to peek out a second later. The sunshine filtered through the trees, leaving the footprints of fairies scattered on the ground, like a wild dance, golden and glittering. Leaves crunched under his big feet while they blew behind her lithe form, windy and opaque. They might as well have been in the fields of home.

"I'm going to win!" She laughed, bursting forward, peals of laughter bubbling from her lips. Thresh laughed and ran forward, his first happy moment in days…

A scream brought him into the truth.

"Amnity!" He shouted, running forward. The light didn't seem so golden, nor the wind so sweet anymore. Thresh felt chilly the closer he got to her scream, but he still couldn't see anything. "Amnity! Say something!"

A cold, sterile giggle blew past his ear, and he shivered. "She's just fine…" It whispered. "She's with me now."

"Right, and who are you?" Thresh demanded.

"They called me Prim." The whisper seemed to hang in the air, the words never ending and always repeating themselves.

"Prim… Prim come out here with Amnity." Thresh crept forward, just to peer around the thick foliage in front of him.

* * *

><p>"So that's everything, then." Lucius Malfoy stepped away from his son, removing his hands from his son's head. "That is what's going on in the world outside."<p>

"What is this then? Some kind of joke? Why on earth would you be here, of all places." Draco tried to move again, but Lucius had frozen him solid.

"They were angry with me for letting you escape. So they designated me to patrol the networks…"

"No, not in the computer. I mean here! In Panem!" Draco shouted.

"I'm glad to see you know your geography, but I must confess I'm shocked at your overall ignorance. Can't you see what a goldmine this place is? The Master will be very pleased with what we are doing here. And you still don't see it?" Lucius chuckled. "You used to be a much brighter boy, but living with your mother has clearly dulled your senses."

"All I see is the merciless and pointless killing of children. And who is this Master? That's the second time I've heard that now." Draco's voice was strained. He was beginning to feel the effects of his dead body. If only he could connect to Hermione…

"The Master? Well, I don't think I could tell you, even if I did know everything. I'm just in charge here. They call me the President!" Lucius said proudly. He wore a silver suit, pressed in all the right places, with a single rosebud tucked into his lapel. He looked proud and dignified, except for the information he revealed to Draco.

"Well, if you're the President, why do they send you off into the network to do patrol work?" Draco asked, slightly amused.

"Well, the Master would be here herself, but she couldn't make it-"

"She? The Master is a she!?" Draco exclaimed.

"Yes, but calm yourself. You are very lucky that she couldn't come in herself. She would not be so tolerant of your questions." Lucius pondered something, his mouth shaping into a frown. "No, I shouldn't even be so tolerant, but as your father, I feel as if I ought to show you some kindness."

"Oh, you don't have to do that." Draco drawled. "You didn't bother with 'kindness' when I was growing up and I'd hate to inconvenience you now."

Lucius barked a laugh. "Ha! You are still just as insolent as you once were. Tell me, son, how do you feel about that mudblood up there, holding your hand. She certainly seems to care about you. How pitiful she is, and how weak. You see now why I always taught you supremacy and power."

"Yea, I do." Draco nodded. "Because you're completely right, dad. I don't even know how I got here with her and the blood traitor with his wife."

_Ohmigod, Draco? _Hermione shrieked in his head. The connection was working!

_Just listen! _He warned her. _And don't take too much of what I say, seriously. I'm patching you into the communications, so you can hear what Lucius says…_ The connection fizzled and Draco gasped. _Try and keep it up on your end if you can. The spell is Nethoura Embracia. _

Lucius looked around at the spacious nothingness of cyberspace. "Yes, that is the great dilemma. You see, we don't know that either. And we can't get you out either, only kill you from inside. We've tried teleporting you, but it's as if our connections don't last. Even long-distance Floo isn't working, since you won't approach any of the Floo's set up inside the arena. Then nobody can apparate in or out of there. So our defenses are only keeping us out as well as you in."

"Why'd you put up defenses then?" Is that why we haven't had any attacks since… the whole Prim debacle?" Draco coughed, trying to mask his disgust.

"Only things that were preset in the design can be activated. Like that windstorm that killed your body. That was preset." Lucius mulled it over and nodded. "I suppose we set up the defenses because we were afraid of you."

"Well, you realize that we were able to conjure food and shelter and technology right? We could summon things and they would appear in front of us. Your defenses… Did you set them up yourself?" Draco peered at his father.

"Yes." Lucius gulped.

"They saved our lives."

**So it's rather short, but I hope you saw my meaning. Or you at least figured it out. Basically, a windstorm (A creature that I'm going to explain in the next chapter) attcked the encampment of the Techies, disconnecting Draco from his body, and temporarily shutting down their work. Then we see Hermione is very attached to Draco and that in their walking around, they've discovered that the arena is larger, so they don't know where everyone else is. Then that wall? Yeah, it's an agua-electromagnetic field powered by sucking up living organisms. However, to be made, it has to have a host source. You figure this one out on your own. Next, Thresh and his sister are playing, and little Amnity dissapears. And would you look at that, I do believe the fence is stronger...  
>Now Lucius was showing all of these things to Draco, who manages to patch a connection with Hermione. (Explanation; Because he dwelled her mind so often, she is the easiest with which to connect. That's why Hermione was in charge of that. Also, the basic telepathic fields are still strongest around the body, so she had to hold onto him, since he is dying. Going any farther away would cut the feed. And since they were so often connected, Hermione was able to mentally retrace the transspace footprint and do part of the connecting. Once Draco gave her the spell, she was able to hold it up on her own, so he wouldn't be drained of energy.) <strong>

**And Lucius still loves his son, even though he is under the influence of the Master, and keeps doing things subconciously for the saving of his son. The power of love people, the power of love. And guess who doesn't understand it? I know what you're thinking, and you're actually wrong. This villian is way worse. Really. You've all seen the meme.**


	17. Chapter 17

**FleurWeasley212, **

**You are beautiful. I don't even need to see your face to know how fantastic you are. Thank you for your review, it was such a blessing. I was so excited about it, I read it to everyone in my house. I'm really grateful to have a fan like you, because you are so grand. Also, whenever I chat online with Barnes and Noble tech support, that's the name I use. We are soul mates and we didn't even know it. **

**Desa**

**And thanks to everyone elses fabulous review! Please enjoy!**

Hermione stayed in Draco's mind until she couldn't hold herself anymore. The break between reality and cyberspace shortened almost before her eyes and she gasped as she felt herself falling into the blind whiteness of the alternate world. Yet she tried to hold on, keep the grass under her toes and her hand firmly planted on the cool, rich earth. But the feeling of the breeze in her hair no longer existed, and the smells of forest and decomposition were no longer reaching her senses. She could hear Bill yelling at her to let go, let go… But she wouldn't do it. And even his voice was fading into the pleasant hum of nonexistence.

_Hermione, you can't fall. You have to let go of me. _Draco warned her, while simultaneously telling his father "Why can't you find the Master? Talk to her, meet her. Surely someone of your standing should be able to know her."

"As important as I am, Draco, you still flatter me. I do not fit into the big picture that way, and it is not my place." Lucius chuckled. "You think so much of your father, even if you hate him. Your adoration cannot be stopped."

_Hermione. Let go of my hand. Break the connection. _Draco warned again, his voice sterner.

_I can't, Draco! You'll die if I… _Hermione's words vaporized in her head. Coming for her was death as well, seeping in through her lost senses and beginning to take her away.

_Hermione, you cannot enter this world. It will kill you. I'll be fine, just let go. _The voice in her mind cracked and wheezed. All of the energy he had was being channeled into his conversation with Lucius, to make him seem stronger.

_Not without you._ She whispered back to his mind.

Draco sighed. _Give me two minutes. I'll be out then, but you have to leave now. _

_I've been here for an hour, I think I can handle two more minutes. _Hermione mused.

_I'll give you a run down of everything we saw, verbatim. Just get the hell out! _He promised, while saying to Lucius; "Why shouldn't I see you as something important? Even begrudgingly I can tell you're powerful. If I were to deny that I would be a fool, as would anybody."

"Do you know you're right?" Lucius snapped. "After the service I put in, and my loyalty. Really, it's a feat that she got me at all. An appreciation dinner at least."

_Alright, I don't need those two minutes after all. _Draco coughed. "I wouldn't mind dinner."

"Not you boy, you must stay in the arena with the mudblood and the traitors. Tell me what they do and what they say. Do I make myself very clear?"

"Loud and." Draco nodded.

_What are you doing? _Hermione hissed.

_You just hold on._

"You always were a good boy, in the end." Lucius held up his wand and flicked his wrist.

_Hermione! Out now!_

And she finally broke the connection.

* * *

><p>"You couldn't let well enough alone, could you? You had to wait until the last second to get out, when he was at most likely to find you and murder you in a second. Always so pushy and… Oh Merlin, you're actually awake." Draco looked into Hermione's fluttering eyes and blanched. "Good… to see you, 'Mione. Bill! Bill!"<p>

"Is she alright?" The redhead came next to the pale figure on the ground and looked at her eyes. "Nothing wrong with her externally."

Mumbling, Hermione came to her full senses and glared at Draco.

"Let's hope something's wrong with her tongue and can't speak." The young man winced.

"Draco Malfoy! You traitor! You scum-sucking, soul-ripping, completely deranged traitor! I should have known you'd side with them and betray us! And after everything…" Hermione was silenced by shock.

Draco Malfoy leaned in kissed her cheeks and hands, grinning like a maniac. Laughing, Bill clutched his side and clapped Draco on the back before excusing himself "to take a piss."

"What?" She glanced at him, embarrassed and further maddened by the proceedings.

"You're you." He kept on grinning, staring at her intently.

"Yes, and you're a complete waste of space. It's a good thing I was there to hear you make a deal with the devil. I'll expose you… what are you doing?" Hermione shouted, exasperated by Draco kissing her hands again and pressing his forehead to her knuckles. "You are taking some serious liberties with my state of health. If I had my wand, I'd hex you into oblivion."

"Salazar, I hated you moments ago. You've been asleep for days, and I was sure you'd gone and put yourself in a permanent coma." His face was still against her hands, which were resting in her lap. Muffled and low were the words, though they seemed to fill the space with energy.

"I've been asleep for that long?" She asked.

"No, you were cold as death for that long." He looked up, and the sober expression on his face quickly turned to one of joyful triumph. "I woke up in hours, but because you brushed death's hair at a bloody sleepover," He rolled his eyes. "you took much longer."

"That's hardly fair. You were closer to death than I."

"No, I disconnected, but I wasn't actually dying. You were letting your whole body get sucked into the cyber vortex." He shook his head and lifted her hands to his face and kissed her knuckles again and again.

"Well, what about you're promise to your father. Spy on us? We'll never let you into our plans again… Really, you have to stop that!" She pulled her hands away and stuck them under her legs, so Draco pulled away, his face still gleaming with satisfaction.

"Yes, that does sound rather incriminating, doesn't it? Well the explanation is fairly simple. You know how in geometry, you're never supposed to rely on the diagram, because the diagram can be wrong? This is sort of like that, except the equation isn't in numbers and letters. It's in logic and manipulation.

"You see, my father is under the control of someone, and the spell they've used is very general, and doesn't require very exact things from him. So his subconscious occasionally breaks through and achieves something for his own means, rather than his boss'. Different things are happening that keep saving my life, and it's because my dad doesn't want me to die, even though it's fairly clear his boss wants me out of the picture."

Hermione sneered. "Right. So you see that your father still loves you and decide to be with him over all of us. No matter the hell he put you through."

"The big picture, Hermione, you're missing it." Draco snapped in front of her face. "No, I see that I still invoke a sense of patriarchal duty in him, and I can manipulate that to my advantage. I needed to live so I could help you all, so I promised him lies. He didn't see the need to put any tracking spells or controlling curses on me, because that isn't what he is ordered to do, so I'm here, Scott free and hooked in to major player outside of the arena. I can get information from him now, and I've convinced him to find out who the Master is, which will be helpful."

"You're awfully clever." Hermione quipped, raising an eyebrow as a sign that her anger had subsided. "I'm glad you're on our side."

Draco smirked. "I know you are."

He gave her a quick kiss and then walked away, still elated by personal discovery. Hermione sighed and smiled herself, touching her lips carefully and already preparing for the journey ahead.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean the wall ate her?" Fluer demanded, staring at the cold, blue expanse. It reflected on her face like water under the moonlight, and as if the sun held no domain over the space around the haunted vision.<p>

Thresh trembled and shook, pointing at the wall as sobs racked his body. "She walked up to it and screamed before the wall… hic… the wall… swallowed her… hic… swallowed her whole." The big man, so torn and broken by his loss, didn't even seem like himself.

"I think the wall is pretty." Prim walked up to it, mesmerized, reaching out a finger. Katniss gasped and races forward, pulling her back.

"What do you think you're doing?" She stroked her sister's hair and pulled her close, breathing deeply.

"It won't hurt me." Prim stated, but she stayed back anyway.

Examining the wall on his own, Peeta rubbed his neck. "It's separating us." He noted. "Maybe as protection, but I doubt it."

"You mean…" Fluer stared into the watery wall. "They're on the other side of this?"

Peeta nodded his head and said nothing.

Glimmer, then, with rock in hand, stepped forward and tossed it over in her hand. With little effort, she tossed the flat-faced stone into the wall. As if hitting the surface of a pond, the water splashed around the impact zone, falling off the wall and onto the grass.

And then the grass shriveled and died, smoking.

"Oh." Glimmer twisted her lips to the side. "That's what happens."

Then, as if tendrils of smoke lifted into the air, words floated out among them in a gurgling voice. "Ooh, you are so precious!"

"Who's that?" Fleur demanded. Thresh whimpered.

"They have called me Prim, and I welcome you to me. I need you." The floating voice whispered.

"What kind of sick joke is that?" Katniss shrieked. "It's getting really old!"

The voice giggled. "They call you the girl on fire, but I could extinguish you in seconds or less. You are so very frail."

"Relashio!" Fleur sent a folly of sparks and hot air at the water. The voice cackled and began to wail, while the wall bubbled and rippled like it boiled. For a second, they could see through it, but then the converging sides forced themselves together and the voice hissed.

"You do not hurt me! You shall not cause me pain!" The voice suddenly took on the tone of a scared little girl, and Gale moaned. "You are mean to me. So mean! So cold! It's just because I'm beautiful that you despise me, and because of my power that you torture me."

"No, I think it would be because you ate a little girl and are keeping us trapped here that we can't stand you." Marvel quipped, earning guffaws from some of the other tributes.

"I will make you feel my pain!" The voice changed from it's girlishness back to the mythical gurgling of no origin.

Without warning, a jet of water shot from the wall and sprayed all over Marvel, who screamed in agony.

"Protego!" Fleur stopped the advancing water and sent the magical shield flying back, but more fountains just burst out. Expanding it, Fleur looked apologetically at Katniss. "Run! All of you, now!"

"Without you? Again?" Katniss frowned.

"Yes," Fleur gave a humorless laugh. "Again." Holding her wand out in front of her, Fleur kissed both of Katniss' cheeks and pushed her away. "Au revoir, mon cher ami."

So Katniss grabbed Prim and began to run, pulling Peeta along as she ran past. As each one disappeared from sight, Fleur felt the tears welling in her eyes. She would die just as her unborn child.

**Review until your fingers hurt from typing so many nice things. Also, my sister is not allowed to review. She usually says very negative, non-related things. Aren't siblings a laugh?**


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm fast. Speedy like an airplane. And here is your next chapter. Enjoy the chaos that is my world. **

Bill shuddered and stopped walking. He bent over and clutched his knees, wondering at the ache in his chest all of a sudden.

"What's wrong?" Hermione was by his side immediately and checking his pulse.

"Nothing, I just…" He clutched his head. "Sudden ache in the head."

Draco pulled Hermione away. "Don't exert yourself."

"I'm hardly exerting myself with concern." She shrugged him off.

"Can I do anything?" Taragon asked cautiously. When he wasn't focused on the computer, he still acted shyly around the wizards.

Bill shook his head. "I'm not even tired, I don't… I feel fine." He stood straight up. "See? Perfectly normal. And I'll be even better when I get back to Fleur and we're all together again."

Smiling behind him, Hermione's mood improved at the thought of being reunited with everyone. They'd only been separated a few days, but it still made her a bit lonesome for female company. The thought of seeing Fleur and Katniss and Prim excited her enough to put a spring in her step; something that had been sorely lacking for the last thirty minutes.

But within the next ten, that spring disappeared.

"What is it?" Hermione stared down the long blue expanse of water standing in front of her.

"They call it Prim." Draco said quietly. "Lucius showed it to me while I was in the Network. It survives off the consumption of present energy. I watched it eat someone…"

"And you haven't mentioned it before." Hermione responded kindly. She could sense the emotional discord in a person a mile away, but she noticed it acutely in Malfoy at that moment.

The blonde gave her a thin smile. "I knew we'd come to it."

Taragon, who had been studying the wall in the meantime, pointed at a distinct fissure, which on closer inspection, was one of many. "They're like rivers. All the concentration of the wall is being conducted through them to one point. See the direction?" The waters did all flow as if they had the same aim, with tiny bits of golden light peeping in amidst the cold blue. "We'll find the source if we follow that."

"Brilliant." Bill shook his head appreciatively. "This kid is bloody brilliant."

"Let's just go." Draco re-shouldered the pack he carried and started walking, Hermione following behind.

* * *

><p>For Fleur, the moments played out like a dream, hazy and languid, flowing from her mind without order or sense as if they simply no longer mattered. Her heart at been settled on the prospect of death, giving the activity of the living world very little appeal to a mind so enlightened by peace. The screams and lights emitted by impulse and fury were enough to make her merely roll her eyes and persist into her sleep of ages. Forgetting love and warmth, Fleur choose instead the melodious nothingness of a cool, empty world. Before she slipped away, she felt warm, rough hands grip her face and whisper her name… Fleur… Fleur… Fleur Weasley don't you dare leave me. Don't you dare…<p>

* * *

><p>Marvel died. Katniss couldn't even bear to look at his body once they'd discovered he wasn't with them. She and Peeta had gone back to see if it was safe, and halfway there, his carcass lay in the shade of a towering old oak, nestled into the damp moss as if he'd lowered himself there days before, intending to die in peace. It appeared a tranquil scene, but she couldn't bear to look at it. The last burnt up body she'd seen hadn't looked this serene, and it seemed unfair that her father should have such a chaotic grave, while Marvel had been laid in the bosom of nature.<p>

Cato and Gale covered him with leaves and sticks, holding their makeshift casket together with mud. Glimmer cried, and Thresh shook silently with dry sobs still for his sister. Clove just stared forward stoically and without remorse. It was not her first loss.

And Katniss just looked anywhere but at the nest under the tree, hurt by her own jealousy and embarrassed by her pain.

* * *

><p>Truth be told, Hermione couldn't understand her emotions on the best of days, but this seemed to be an entirely new level of confusion. The effort they had put into the saving of the children seemed futile, as only seven were now left. Seven out of a hundred. One hundred children who had parents and care takers, friends and promises, now dead, except for seven. Seven of the unluckiest children alive, depending on your angle. And Hermione saw them as very unlucky indeed, in spite of their survival. No matter what happened, they were doomed for destruction and pain wherever their feet led them. They had seen magic and monsters, experienced terror and nightmares, suffered through starvation and war, and witnessed death. All of the burdens children were protected from had been thrust into their lives without thought of the consequence and left scars that no one could erase. Not even Hermione Granger.<p>

Fleur had slipped through their fingers and left before their very eyes, white and unseeing, even though her eyes were open and staring at them the entire time. She just smiled an empty, thin lipped smile that tore through Bill like a knife into the gut. He crumpled over her and poured out his being onto her alternating between growls of anger and the anguish of being left behind by the love of his life. He was broken, and Hermione couldn't help him; no one could. And if they thought his visible sorrow was heart breaking enough, the stony, emotionless Bill that follow could only have been worse.

And as if two, horribly soul-destroying realities weren't enough, Draco Malfoy had to be there and give her terribly wicked thoughts. She even caught herself thinking about what a silver lining he was to her, and how terribly she liked him. Even worse, she imagined she'd look just like Bill if Draco decided to die on her as well. Except that would have been more sorrow over lost opportunity than anything, since she didn't really love him. He just made existing in her own personal nightmare a little more tolerable. And he smiled nicely when he teased her. And he was good with the children. And…

"Hermione, help set up the tents, will you?" Gale asked, his tone rigid. He and Cato were struggling to manage the canvas structure, despite it's size. She turned around and faced him, blinking herself out of her reverie.

"Oh, yeah." She pulled out her wand and gave it a flick.

"Oi! I didn't mean that!" Gale jumped back as the tent assembled itself completely. Cato peeked inside and noticed how cavernous the space was and decided to enter and explore it himself.

"That's the easiest way to assemble it." She shrugged.

"No, I don't want any of that… magic in my face. It's not natural." He stuck his finger in her countenance and his voice was stern. "Don't hang around me with all of that. You're the reason we're here and in this mess. If you'd just stayed out of the games, we'd all be better off."

In one second, Hermione's eye brows raised, she faced him completely and smacked his finger away with her wand and pointed it in his face. He didn't gulp or shiver like anyone else would. He just stared right back at her without caring for the consequence.

"Don't blame me." She sneered. "I'm working on your side and I'm saving your lives. If you want to have a sour attitude, then go ahead, but I won't help you if you're being sour to me. And I won't hesitate to 'hang around you' with all my unnaturalness and give you a few hexes you'll never forget. Am I making myself completely clear?"

"Not. In. The least." He bit out.

"Good." She turned on her heel and stomped away, still confused, but now also angry.

* * *

><p>Death did not look like this.<p>

Fleur looked at Marvel and Marvel looked back, clutching his hands and touching the rest of his face, finding everything exactly where it should be, except for the pimple behind his ear and a scar over his knee. Fleur felt perfectly radiant, and knew she didn't need to examine herself to know her veela was working overtime. Marvel was looking at her, completely awestruck.

It also helped that they were both completely naked.

And she was French, so she didn't really mind.

"What's zeis?" Fleur asked, looking around the room trying to take a not so conspicuous peek at the young man in front of her.

"I… Uh… Well…" Marvel gulped and whipped his head around.

Fleur got a glance and was fairly impressed.

"N'importe qui est là? Er, sorry, eez anyone z'ere?" Fleur called out.

The room was lit by two, fluorescent bars on the ceiling, which showed them the stark, white room they were waiting in. Every four feet the walls had a pipe running down that opened up at the floor. Two pipes were still dripping a thick, blue substance on to the concrete floor. And the blue stuff rolled across the cement and stuck itself to someone's foot, before disappearing entirely. On one side of the room was a big, glass wall that showed no reflection, yet they couldn't see through. It might not have been glass, but since neither party in the room cared to touch it and see, it remained glass in their minds.

Although, now that they thought of it, they couldn't move anyway.

"I can't move my feet." Marvel yanked at his ankles, but they wouldn't move. "Why can I move the rest of me, but not my feet?"

"The bleu stuff…" Fleur said other things in French very rapidly, before shaking her head. "I know English perfectzly well. What is ze matter weeth me?"

"I'm cold." Marvel stated, his arms coming around him. He tried to move his thigh for coverage, but upon seeing it did no good he gave up.

Fleur laughed. "Not all of you eez so cold."

Marvel tried again to cover his erection, but it still didn't work and he could only blush as Fleur continued giggling.

One of the drains had stopped pouring in liquid completely, and a thin, blue trail wound it's way through the rough grooves and onto Fleur's foot. Once all of it disappeared into her skin, she could feel her feet release and she quickly walked over to the pipe that fed her.

"How curious… My essence seemed to come from this. Oh, and my English is back, and perfectly normal."

"Are we dead?" Marvel didn't even bother to direct his eyes to her face.

"No. That much is certain. I know what heaven is supposed to be like, and this isn't it." Fleur rapped the pipe with her knuckles. "I came out of a pipe and I came here… Oh, looks like your essence is wrapping up too."

As to accord, the tiny blue stream wrapped around Marvel's ankle and he could finally move. So he turned around and walked to the glass window.

"Do you think we could break through?"

"You could try." Fleur shrugged, still examining things.

"No, I won't bother. Listen carefully."

Once both were completely silent, they could very audibly hear the buzzing whir of electricity. The room seemed full of it, and it came from the window.

"I wonder what Bill would call it if he were here." Fleur wondered longingly before the events surrounding her "death" came back to her. The wall, the burning, the sound of a thousand glasses shattering and water falling all around her. Bill calling her name over and over. "Oh dieu."

"What?" Marvel turned around.

"They think we've died. We have to get back to them." Fleur ran up to the window next to Marvel and shouted at it. "Help! Get us out! Please! S'il vous plaît!"

"That's the word!" A voice boomed. Suddenly the window was clear, and a gruff old man stared at them, bottle in his left hand, and a smirk on his face.

"What is that place?" Marvel stared into the empty room beyond. The only things there besides the man were two chairs and a control board covered in switches and sleeping screens.

The old man peered at Fleur and his grin widened. "If I weren't so sauced, my trousers would be as tight as his. You're damn good looking."

"I know." Fleur shrugged. "What did you do so we could see you?"

"I lowered the electromagnetic shield. And it's a good thing you didn't touch it, because they couldn't have re-streamed your essence again from here. My turn to ask a question; You married to that red-headed bloke?" The old man asked, scratching his stubbly chin.

"Oui. My turn I suppose; Who are you?" Fleur's arms crossed across her chest when she realized he wasn't paying attention.

"Wha? Oh, my name's Abernathy- Haymitch Abernathy. And I'm about to save your lives."

**Please review as if you life depended on it, because you never know; It just might. ;) **


	19. Chapter 19

**I don't know how many of you noticed, but we have reached a real milestone. A.) 100 reviews! That's brilliant, and I am so greatful for about 98 of them. There have since been more, and you are great, great readers, but I will give you all of your great thanks in the 200 review mile mark. Because we're going to get there too. :) B.) This is the most popular Harry Potter/Hunger Games fanfiction on ! More reviews, favorites, and followers than any other. Marvelous, and it's all thank to you. If you guys didn't care, I would still be on Twitter looking at everyone else's ideas and successes. This is much more fun, I assure you. Thanks to all of you, and please enjoy the story. Also, since many of you said you liked Haymitch, I put a lot of it in here. And then some romance, just as a special treat, but nothing that will be continued. **

"I suppose the best way to save your life, at this point, would be to warm you up." Haymitch sniffed and took one last look before pressing a button on the control panel in front of him. Immediately following, two, plain white smocks dropped from a trapdoor on the ceiling. Marvel ran over immediately and donned one, but Fleur nodded her thanks, uncrossed her arms and walked over. Once she covered herself, she walked back to the window.

"Can you let us out of here?" She asked.

"'Fraid not. If I did, you'd disintegrate. You're still cooking." He nodded at the room. "It's using a very subtle radiation to thoroughly mend your being and put you back together after the mutation transport."

Marvel looked himself up and down. "We were mutuated? How?"

"How else would they manage to capture you soul after death? Yeah, you were mutated before the games and you're completely different, even though exactly the same. How they captured Blondie over here, I'm not so sure." He eyed the woman differently than before. "You weren't an original contender."

"Hardly. I'm nearly thirty." answered Fleur. "Besides that, I'm a witch."

"Oh, right. Nearly forgot; this…" He held up a wand. "Is yours?"

She nodded and reached out her hand.

"Oh, no sorry. I can't give it to you. I may not remember much, but I remember these orders." He quirked his lips to the side.

"You seem rather intelligent." Fleur noted.

Haymitch guffawed. "Right. Again, that would be the booze."

Deciding to interrupt now, Marvel burst in. "When are we done… er, cooking?"

"In a few hours, I think. You're done draining. Say, Blondie, how did your drain work out, since you have the added element of being… a witch, as you say. Are you still a witch?"

Examining herself, Fleur tried a very simple spell. "Accio clothes."

Marvel's hospital gown ruffled as if it had been in the breeze but did little else.

"Hey, were you trying to take my clothes?" Marvel fisted the gown in his hands.

"Don't flatter yourself." Fleur murmured. She stared at her hands and felt around inside of her. Her magic rested in there somewhere, but it barely existed, like it was dormant. "It's like I'm a child again. I know it's there, but I have to grow up to have it."

"We'll see when you're done cooking, I suppose." Haymitch shrugged and took a swig from his bottle. "I'm not really supposed to be here anyway, but Coin wanted a full report… Dunno why she sent me: probably because she wanted me outa her sight. You lot sit tight. I'll send someone after you later." Heading for the door, Haymitch turned and swaggered away, still mumbling to himself. But suddenly, he stopped. Stopped moving, stopped muttering, stopped everything. He just stood there as if he were frozen.

"Monsieur?" Fleur reached up to touch the glass.

Haymitch turned around and his cheeks were wet to match his red eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it, running his tongue over his crooked teeth. One tear… two…

"Is she alright?" He asked, voice cracking. He sniffed and regained composure. "Katniss. How was she?"

"Fine, she was fine." Fleur assured.

"Good. Good." Haymitch nodded to himself and swaggered out of the room.

* * *

><p>"Katniss?" Peeta found the girl curled up under a tree and saying nothing, just staring at the moss on the damp bark of a root. "Everyone's looking for you, we wanted everyone together before we…"<p>

His sentence trailed off as he realized what a rare opportunity he had before him. Out of all the people out looking for this girl, he had found her when he desperately wanted to, and then he had a chance to talk to her alone. To tell her things he hadn't had a chance to tell her yet. Realizing this might be his only opportunity in a while, he sat down next to her and remained as quiet as she for several minutes before finally mustering up the courage to speak.

"Listen, I know you probably don't want to talk to me very much right now… You're under a lot of pressure, but if you'll just listen to me for a bit, I'd like to explain some things that I wasn't very clear about. When the games started, and I thought that was bad and you would die, I said a lot of things because I thought it was my last chance to say them. I should have been more delicate with it… rather than just saying it all in front of live television. Well now everything is far worse than it was, and I think I understand what you're feeling. You're confused- I'm confused. This is all so strange to both of us and we're young and I… Well, I'll just say it. I'm in lo-"

"Rehearsing?" Katniss asked, her voice floating out from behind him.

"Wha-?" Peeta turned around and saw Katniss peeking out from behind a tree. She stepped out, and soon Draco followed, looking sheepishly amused. "But you're… I was looking for you."

"Draco found me a while ago. Now everyone's wondering where you'd disappeared." Katniss shrugged. "What are you doing?"

"I'm talking to you!" Peeta exclaimed, his eyes wide.

She chuckled. "No, I mean what were you doing before I got here."

"Talking to you! Look!" He gestured behind him and Draco and Katniss stepped forward to see.

"It's… me." Katniss recognized the braid and what little of the face she could see. "I'm lying on a tree."

"Step away from it." Draco pushed her back and pulled out his wand. With the gentle force of a surgeon, he poked the exposed nape in the back of the neck. Rather than the usual feeling of soft flesh and muscle, he met with solid, mechanical resistance, and the sound of clockwork meshing together soon filled the air. And mechanical Katniss began to wake.

"I think I turned her on." Draco grimaced, and Katniss gave a strangled yelp of irony.

The robot stood up, and revealed herself to be as similar to Katniss as a reflection in the mirror. Her freckles and scars all present in all the right, visible places. Looking down at her hands, mechanical Katniss raised her eyebrows and began to smile, her eyes all at once becoming a mixture of exceptional glee and morbid pleasure at acts she realized she could commit. The sadistic grin, so unlike the real Katniss' usual expression seemed too unreal to be a serious matter, and Draco could barely stop himself from giving a quick burst of laughter in the face of their opposition. Mechanical Katniss didn't care for the laugh, and choose to express this by flexing her fingers, rolling her head… and then leaping forward, hands strained forward for his neck.

"Petrificus Tortalis!" He pointed his wand at her as quickly as he could gather his thoughts, accustomed as he was to battle, that happened to be rather quickly. However, the spell only managed to take effect as soon as she had locked her fingers firmly around his neck.

"Oh god… she looks just like me." Katniss, who had leaped back in surprise of the attack, now stepped forward. "They made me…"

"We can discuss that later…" Draco gasped. "Try to peel her fingers off me… Now!"

Still in chock, Katniss didn't move to action immediately, so Peeta forced himself to help the man he imagined was trying to steal his girl. Once the taunt, little fingers off his neck, Draco rubbed his neck and cast another spell "just to stall her motors for a while."

"What are we going to do with this?" Katniss exclaimed, frustrated and scared. "How will we tell us apart… This is just like the whole mess with Prim. Will the horrors here ever stop?"

Draco looked at her from the corner of his eye as he continued to examine the robot. "No." He answered plainly. "They will not.

* * *

><p>Glimmer and Cato found solace in each other that afternoon, talking and kissing, each one contemplating how far they could take it before it became insensible. Neither were unfamiliar with the act their kisses and touching were a prelude too, and both were feeling severe emotional deprivation and emptiness, their hearts and lusts aching towards one another. They both became for the other a perfect representation of what they wanted so terribly, but were cautious to take, unless it jeopardized their clandestine location and the safety of their companions.<p>

"I liked it better when the Games were the standard affair and our sexual attraction was cancelled out by the plans to murder the other when the alliance broke down." Glimmer whispered, pressing her hands against his chest while his arms encircled her waist and he pressed his forehead to hers.

"Mmm. I just liked it when we weren't stuck with a bunch of freaks." Cato kissed her nose and the corner of her eye, running a hand up the side of her waist and over her chest. Glimmer leaned back into the tree at her back with pleasure and Cato, emboldened, kissed the skin nest to her ear and nibbled on the soft lobe.

Their weapons were strewn about them carelessly, but always within the reach, and the nonessential articles of clothing were gone as well. A jacket slung over a tree here and her shirt lying in a bush there. A thin tank top protected her innocence, but she wondered if she could do without that as well. Cato's sinewy frame begged to be touched and rubbed, and as her hands wandered the mountains and valleys with her hand, his mouth began to verbalize it.

"Shine for me…" Cato whispered in her ear, before nipping her shoulder and rising up to capture her delicate lips with his teeth, gently pulling them and suck on them, and generally arousing her. "Glimmer."

She moaned and leaned away, pulling his face with her own until the tree behind her prevented any further retreat. A sound of shock when the rough wood came against the bare skin of her shoulder emerged, and Cato found his dominance. Pushing her, he ground his lips against hers, and she leg go of his face, placing her arms in the air as his hands ravaged her, yanking at her clothes and squeezing her skin, coupling passion and pleasure with savagery and malice. Glimmer couldn't have stopped him if she wanted too, knowing him as she did, nothing short of death would be enough to stop the animal that desired her now.

It was a good thing she liked danger.

* * *

><p>"You should be done. The meters all claim perfect health and stability, even if it is a little early to break you out…" Haymitch looked behind him at the door, which remained perfectly still. "Did anyone else come and observe you?"<p>

Fleur glanced at Marvel, before saying, "No, there was no one else."

"Good, good. Alright, you'll be coming out with me now. And Blondie, you get your wand back. Do you feel all magicky?" Pressing buttons and entering codes, Haymitch finally made the door open.

"I know I have it all." Fleur nodded. "Merci, monsieur, for all of your help."

Marvel nodded. "Yeah, uh, Mer-cey."

Haymitch shook his head. "Don't thank me, I'm not doing it for your sake, and I wouldn't even be helping you if I hadn't been asked too. Oh, god, I have a splitting headache. Coin took my bottle away until I finished…"

"Then I thank you for a good job, despite your begrudging spirit." Fleur graciously gave him.

"And I thank you for a view of your knockers. That alone has made this whole thing worthwhile." Haymitch waved them to the door. "Let's go, you have a meeting."

As he stalked to the door, Marvel turned to the imposing woman next to him and with fear in his face, he asked; "Why won't we tell him?"

"Because I don't think he could handle it." Fleur shrugged. "I am a woman, I know these things."

"When she visited us, she said it would mean a lot to her if she could see him." Marvel argued.

"It would destroy him." She stated. "Now follow him, that dear homme triste."

The dear, sad man.

**I hope you liked! Please review and help us reach the 200 review mark in the near future! You are all magnificent!**


	20. Chapter 20

**It's been a while since my last update, but you're probably used to my delays by now. Albiet more than fed up with them, but fairly familiar. So here is chapter 20, and may you read, review, and enjoy!**

"We've got to figure out what to do with ourselves in here. Find a way to get out of here. This is becoming an endless cycle." Bill announced to the circle around him. The children were only a few feet away, safely playing under everyone's watchful eyes. They were lost in Neverland, fighting the battles the grown-ups wouldn't let them face and conquering all that is evil in the world with an exclamation and jab.

"I agree. But we'll have to break out." Cato shook his head and ran a finger up and down Glimmer's outside thigh. "As far as I know, that's impossible."

"Sure, but you have another advantage now." Draco smirked. "Impossible isn't a word found in our list of spells."

Hermione muttered under her breath at him; "You're impossible." and Draco only smirked wider.

"There are a variety of spells we can combine to possibly get us out of here, and you happen to have, sitting before you, two of the greatest wizards our world has seen since Dumbledore." Bill exclaimed. He gestured at the two young people sitting next to each other, who both blushed a bit.

"That's unfairly kind. You're incredible too, Bill." Hermione smiled.

"Obviously not, or my wife would be alive." He shrugged. Everyone was exceptionally quiet. "Now, does anyone know where the edge of the arena is?"

"Well, it was supposed to end a while ago." Katniss piped. "I've traversed the whole thing, and there was definitely an expansion. I couldn't tell you how far it is to the next end point."

"Okay. That's frustrating." Bill slouched.

* * *

><p>"Fleur, I was wondering…"<p>

"It's Mrs. Weasley." Fleur cut Haymitch off. "Yes?"

"Oh… nothing. Never mind."

The continued trekking through the long, narrow hallways, the grimy, fluorescent lighting reflecting off their faces and the sterile concrete walls. Every so often, they would pass a door, but Haymitch barely blinked at them. He just kept on marching, with the witch and the tribute following behind.

Marvel jogged up to keep pace with Haymitch. "Hey, you're that guy from District 12 who won the quarter quell right?"

Haymitch grunted.

"Sorry I didn't recognize you before." Marvel looked ecstatic. "You are sort of a big deal in District 1. They tell us to 'conquer the Abernathys of the world' and never let a punk win again. No offence. I think you're brilliant though. And to think you barely killed a person."

"I killed every person in that arena." Haymitch snapped. "Because I didn't do anything to help them."

"That's a nice way of looking at it." Marvel beamed. "Thanks man. That really helped. You are so great."

Haymitch rolled his eyes and continued stalking forward, shoving his hands deep into his pockets, as if not seeing them would help him forget the evil they had done.

When they came to a door with a red 'x' painted on the front and bullet holes around the handle, Haymitch finally stopped. Looking around him cautiously, he knocked n the door three times very rapidly and then ran his hand down it, tapping his nails as he went. Once the curious action had been repeated twice, the clanging and buzz of activity began inside. The door finally opened and there stood and ragged looking young man with a pock-marked nose, over-large ears and bushy eyebrows that nearly hid the space between his eyes. Tall and gawky, he saluted Haymitch clumsily before eyeing the people accompanying him.

"Who are they?" He lisped, tilting his head to the side. He stared at Fleur with an intensity she didn't expect but barely noticed after a first glance.

"Just more people from the cooker. I take it you didn't watch the games much." Haymicth grumbled.

"You said you didn't like them, so I didn't…"

"You'd know who they are if you'd seen anything." Pushing past the young man, Haymitch beckoned for his companions to follow. "Seal up the door, Willard. No one else should be coming for three hours."

"Yes sir." Willard threw up a salute the same time his body turned to do as it had been told. The result was an awkward fling around of the body that left his arms flailing and his long frame tripping over his feet. But once he began sealing up the door, he did so with vigor. Chaining the inside handle to the peg in the wall, boarding up the sides and putting different objects in the way until a barricade made by a mad man stood piled there, with weird Willard sitting in front of it at attention.

"You can relax, Willard." Haymitch groaned without turning around. He just continued to walk through the dark and cluttered halls.

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

Fleur gave the poor sentinel a last glance before she followed behind as well.

* * *

><p>They called themselves the Extraction Team. Their sole mission was to get the tributes out of the arena, and whoever else had been locked in with them. Ma'am Dubarcy, the leader of the team, allowed for no shenanigans, and made the introductions to Fleur and Marvel concisely and without favor. The line-up, after her brief overture made no impression, and it took personal experience to remember all who were on the team.<p>

Fleur and Marvel both met Jenny Doreen, who offered them light food and refreshments. She wasn't involved in any of the technical things, just the cleaning and care of all the members present. She brought them haggis sandwiches and lukewarm tea, a combination they promptly tossed in the nearest garbage can.

The next stand-out was a weary looking man who called himself Angelo, and asked them to please move away from his workspace. Fleur pointed out a flaw in his diagram, and he fixed it with a snarl on his face. Leaving the over-worked man to his own, they moved on.

Edmund Hugg went out of his way to introduce himself to Fleur, who immediately told him her name was Mrs. Weasley. He nodded politely, but the gleam didn't leave his eye, wedding ring or not.

Marvel found a special fascination in a man called Abner and his hacking devices. He could use the cameras in the arena (which the Capitol had long lost the use of) to track the tributes and their friends. The only problem, Abner said, was that once any of those wizards waved their wands in 'x' shapes, the entire party disappeared, "renderin' them cameras useless."

Fleur snickered.

* * *

><p>"So we can open up a portal, but the odds of them going into it aren't very high. It will look too much like a capitol invention." Edmund through his diagrams and equations onto the center table, made from an over turned crate. "The water wall has made them loose trust in everything."<p>

"What is the wall?" Marvel asked.

"We can't find out for sure, but it seems they used the genetic energy of a child used it to electrocute a long wall of water into a really basic life form." Ma'am Dubarcy explained. "The only problem with it is her coldness. She automatically exudes a warning chill to stay away from her, so whatever her original goal was in the arena, it is gone. They stay away from her."

"That's the problem with everything the Capitol makes. They can make life, but they can't make a soul." Edmund winked at Fleur. "I have soul."

Fleur winked back.

"Right. Now, if the portal is our best option, we just need to find a way to make it appealing to them." Ma'am Dubarcy routed.

"One of us could go back through to tell them it's safe." Fleur suggested.

"A two-way portal d'take up too much power." Abner shook his head. "We cud send someone to 'em, but then we'd 'ave to shut it down fer a time an' recalibrate."

"I'll go!" Fleur stood up. "My husband is down there… I could…"

"No, you couldn't go." Edmund shook his head, and Fleur was very nearly offended. "If our video feeds are right, you've been dealing with quite a few automatons who impersonate people, dead or alive. You are considered deceased, therefore your presence would be unsettling."

"So that means I can't go either?" asked Marvel uncomfortably.

"Basically." Edmund shrugged again.

Another tech woman raised a finger to add her opinion. "I believe Haymitch should go. He is a trusted authority and has a personality that cannot be replicated by a machine."

Haymitch chuckled. "That's all very nice, Lora, but I don't think I am cut out to be in the arena again…"

Ma'am Dubarcy nodded with approval. "Coin would like that he would be without access to alcohol."

"My insider status would be ruined!" Haymitch bellowed, rising to his feet.

"There is no activity on the Capitol video feed. They aren't even recording it anymore. Just automated traps set to go off every once in a while. No one would see you." Edmund comforted.

"Katniss trusts you, I think. You could use that." Angelo noted.

"Leave her out of this." Haymitch snapped. "And what do you mean my personality can't be replicated?"

"This is settled then." Ma'am Dubarcy collected the papers off the table and began to walk away. "I want that portal ready by tomorrow evening, and Haymitch will go through." Before she left completely, she peeked around the corner flashing a rare smile. "Excellent suggestion, Lora. I'll have to promote you."

* * *

><p>Fleur barely knew what to do with herself. Here, for the first time since this whole ordeal began, Fleur had a nice bed, relative safety, and plenty to eat. She should have been thrilled.<p>

But she couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, and she just felt lost and alone.

Bill. She knew he must be feeling absolutely devastated. She wished he could know that she still lived and breathed like he did, nothing wrong with her at all. She wanted to tell him, but she had to wait. She had to wait until it was safe and he could be absolutely sure it was her. The thought of him distrusting her caused wave of sickness to swell up inside of her.

No, that was real sickness.

She threw up on the floor next to her bed and sobbed. She barely had any food in her stomach, and if she threw up again she would just get dehydrated. She learned that lesson very early while she was pregnant. So taking up a thin little bathrobe they gave her, and got up to find some water.

As she silently padded down he hallways, clutching her wand, she heard voices coming from the entry door. Her pursuit of a cup could wait, as the gossipy Frenchwoman crept near enough to hear.

"-can't just leave me alone. The Ma'am doesn't like me." Willard was crying.

"Dubarcy doesn't like me either. That's why I have to go." Haymitch grumbled. "And don't be such a baby. You are a man, you know. I remember changing your nappies."

"But…bu-bu, but dad…" Willard sobbed. Fleur's eyes widened.

"Don't call me that here." Haymitch scolded. But then the sounds of two men embracing each other, with rustling fabric and the slapping of backs could be heard, and Fleur backed away silently, swearing to stay silent, just this once.


	21. Chapter 21

**Whoops! This took me far to long to come up with. So, sorry about that. Then, this is full of a lot of fillers. I swear the next chapter will be chalk full of adventure and livelyness. But the majority of this is kinda sappy, except I placed several spoilers in here if you read it carefully. Read on!**

* * *

><p>The arrival of Haymitch left very little doubt in Katniss' mind as to their next course of action. The unfamiliarity with everyone else however, especially the wizards, made Haymitch an object of revulsion and avoidance. Draco avoided the older man more than anyone else, giving him cruel stares and displaying his unbending will regularly. Haymitch grumbled endlessly to Katniss about the treatment he received, but she shrugged it off, justifying the behavior with her silence.<p>

In the control room, miles away, the rag-tag team of industrial geniuses, volunteering their brilliant technology and stolen energy worked all hours, hoping to recreate their portal, hoping the persuasive speech and stunning vernacular of their ambassador to the tributes would make all of it worth while.

* * *

><p>"Bluurgh." Haymitch belched unapologetically, snickering into his hand. "Did you hear that? Oh… here comes another!"<p>

"You had to give him Firewhiskey." Draco muttered to Bill.

"It's one of the first things I learned to transfigure water into after mum got rid of my supply." Bill grinned. "Never thought it would be this entertaining. Besides, I've tested it, cyborgs and robots can't get drunk. This one is definitely human."

Draco waved the stench of the latest burp away and smirked. "You mean you're testing his humanity? You may just yet be brilliant."

"No. I'll never be brilliant again." Bill's smile faded and he walked away, kicking at the ground with his feet.

Draco watched him go while trepidation welled up inside of him, worry for a friend, he believed it was. The feeling, although new, gave him comfort in an odd way. If he could feel worry for Bill Weasley, they must be friends now. Real friends, the kind that last after the near death experiences you share with one another.

A bit later, Hermione and Draco were talking, when he realized they were really friends too. The lasting kind. In this state of euphoria, he even went so far as to say so.

Her answer seemed hesitant. "Yes. I think we're friends."

"Good." Draco nodded. "Good, I think I'm glad. Years of hatred can now be put behind us."

"Not that you'll stop enjoying a tease at my expense." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Probably not, that's too much fun. But at least now you know I like you in spite of it." Draco smiled into the darkness of the sky, rippling with the energy currents flowing through.

"You like me?" Hermione grimaced. "What a horrid idea."

Draco shrugged. "It's not so bad, and I'm not awful once you get to know me."

"I know you." Hermione answered him quietly. "You really aren't awful."

"I know." Draco looked away as he spoke, feeling another warm feeling inside. Gooey and flowing like melted butter, running over his insides. Then, in his usual, sudden burst of haughtiness, he turned back and smirked. "I know."

"Come off it, you git." Hermione laughed and pushed him a bit, giving them both cause to sway a little closer than before. And they stayed that way, close, barely touching, for the rest of their watch, before laying down nearer each other than they ever dared before. When the morning came, they were pressed so close, Draco could smell her hair.

* * *

><p>"Do you like coffee?" Edmund placed a steaming mug in front of her, and Fleur glanced his way gratefully.<p>

"Very much, thank you." She sat up from the bed and took the warm, ceramic jug in her hand. "I prefer tea though."

"Ahh, I would get you tea, lovely, but the tax on that is too high. Unless you fancy an illegal pot of the stuff." Edmund raised an eyebrow.

Fleur laughed. "Just like the Americas. Have you considered throwing it all away?"

Edmund laughed, his brown hair falling into his eyes before he pushed it away again. "You have a sense of humor. I like that in a woman."

"So does my husband." Fleur took a sip nonchalantly.

Edmund sobered up. "Right then. But you did mention something funny. The 'Americas?' What is that?"

"It's a country. Fabulous history, horribly cocky." Fleur lay back in bed, her stomach convulsing. "I don't think the cooking process agreed with me."

Edmund raised an eyebrow but said nothing, leaving her alone in her room. The walls were still gray and empty and the air smelled like liquid mold.

"Ce que faire, quoi faire…" She pondered, fingering her wand. If she had to be sick in bed, she at least wanted things to be pleasant. She imagined shell cottage and the sound of the beach only footsteps away. She could hear Bill's footsteps as he paced in the study above her kitchen and the smell of warm vegetable stew that Mrs. Weasley sent over in an everlasting crock pot. Vegetable stew remained Bill's favorite even after seven consecutive nights and lunches. When they visited Diagon Alley that fateful day, she had been looking for a counter charm that would put an end to the endless supply of soup.

And they had been looking for a cradle, but that seemed worthless now.

With her eyes shut tight, she started flicking her wand and muttering little spells you only learn in Homemaking for Witches by Edith Clearwing, fourth French Edition. She didn't really know what it would look like when she finished, only that it would be completely different from the room in which she had closed her eyes. She thought about the chrysanthemum garden by the front door, and the pumpkin patch in the fall. She thought of those funny little oven mitts Ginny had made her and the mason jar full of questionable products made my the twins. She laughed a bit and opened her eyes.

"Of course." Fleur shook her head, a tear trickling down her face as she looked around her new room with joy.

Then she threw up in the bin besides her bed.

* * *

><p>"How soon until we can get the energy channeled into our lines?" Ma'am Dubarcy tapped the computer screen with one of her impossibly long nails.<p>

Abner sat back in his chair looking violated. "Well, supposin' I could git the firewulls passed with only half the re-sources ah us'ally have, we're looking at three ta six days."

"We've had to distribute the supplies, Mr. Yeltsin. Everyone is involved now." Ma'am didn't back down from her position of authority, and Abner staunchly refused to back down from his.

"You gave mah computer to Miss Doreen." He pointed a finger at the other side of the room, where Jenny stared at the screen with intent and concentration, moving slowly. "You know she ain't helpin'."

"We need all the help we can get." Ma'am Dubarcy stayed firm, and Abner turned back to his screen.

"Jus don' touch mah screen a'gin. You'll prolly break it with them nails."

Marvel found this as his opportunity to jump in an volunteer, but Ma'am waved him off without listening.

"You're a civilian, technically, and a victim. There is nothing you can do. You weren't trained for this." She said.

Marvel protested. "You're letting Jenny Doreen do something!" He looked around wildly and then pointed at the scrawny kid in the back. "You gave Willard a job back here!"

"If you want, you may take Willard's place by the door. My mind hasn't been at ease since he left." Ma'am rubbed her forehead then patted the young man's arm. "Why don't you be our muscle?"

Marvel thought it the perfect solution and marched immediately to the door, and sat there for a few minutes before realizing this solution provided no more amusement than doing nothing. He grumbled a bit and the reclined himself to take a nap.

* * *

><p>If anyone noticed the new familiarity between Draco and Hermione, they were polite enough to keep it to themselves. The situation remained that their lives were all still in mortal danger, and discussing the petty gossip of forlorn survivors and their internal relationship habits simply didn't seem horribly important. Yet the magical pair never left one another's sight, never stopped bantering, and never stopped invading the other's personal space. It was almost as if the pair weren't comfortable until his shoulder touched her back or her foot stood in between his. They just kept existing near each other, awkwardly and noisily, no obvious overtures being made aside from the obvious braveness of their limb placement.<p>

"What do you mean, no reasonable excuse?" Hermione reached across his chest to grab a spare part from the bits left from the mechanical Katniss. "I thought the Minister's explanation was more that satisfactory. If the law had been passed, imagine the permissibility that would give the potions dealers in dealing with creditors. Debts would never be paid!"

Draco looked up from the little engine that had been working as a lung, tugging a bit of wire up with his finger. "The law would only be in effect on Jubilee years. I believe that used to be a tradition in many ancient cultures. It enables companies to get a fresh start. And it would only apply to those with debt that fit inside a specific range. Under 25,000 Galleons I believe it was." He readjusted his legs, so they didn't sit so heavily on top of hers, and leaned against a tree. "The benefits in a free enterprise market would have been unbelievable."

"You're only saying that because you have stock in the potions market. Think about it from my side. I have invested in the banks, because they expect a 20 percent turn around from every loan they accrue. But as soon as they get loans pardoned every fifty years, they see a major drop in profit. Then where are my benefits and returns!" Hermione grabbed the lung box out of Draco's hand and stuck her little bit inside, causing the gears to start turning. Draco rolled his eyes and grabbed the now working box back, trying to understand what she had just done.

"Was that the motor cog? Maybe the banks should be more careful in their loans."

"That doesn't do much if their clients know they don't have to pay it back in fifty years."

"Prices in the private sector would go down immensely."

"The inflation would probably go up and wholesale would be expensive." Hermione shook her head.

"It would be a temporary bubble on the market…"

"SHUT UP." Seven voices chimed in at eerily similar moments to bring an end to the banter. None of the tributes understood exactly what their talk meant, Bill didn't care, and Haymitch only said shut up because everyone else said it, and he was still very drunk.

"Can we please just focus on the task at hand?" Glimmer waved her little piece of mechanics in the air. "Even if we have nothing better to do, I don't want to listen to you guys talk."

The entangled couple still had a shocked look on their faces, although Draco's face held more mockery than anything. Hermione just began to snicker into her hand and placed the other on Draco's shoulder.

They tried to return to quiet and work, but Hermione wouldn't stop giggling every so often, and Draco kept poking her in the side to make her laugh harder. Finally, Clove stood up and pointed away from the group.

"You guys need a time-out. You are clearly exhausted and unable to work properly."

Everyone looked at the large pile of completed pieces Hermione and Draco had done, and the small piles of everyone else. They all caught the irony, but for their own peace of mind, they agreed to have the two sent away. Once everyone in the group had agreed, Draco helped Hermione up, and they walked away, hand in hand.

Katniss watched with quiet envy.

* * *

><p>"You would call the greatest literary achievement of all time, hopeless poppycock." Draco leaned over the shorter woman as she leaned back into a tree. "Johann Sticklebug is the lone pioneer of the genre and I daresay the wizard world could use more visionaries like him."<p>

"Wizard detective novels are hardly groundbreaking. Muggles have been perfecting Noir Crime since the thirties." Hermione scoffed. "You only like it because it makes you feel manly to say whatever Auror Robinson does."

"Ah ha! So you've read it!" Draco shouted triumphantly.

"Of course I did! Harry and Ron love them, and I was so impressed they were reading, I had to see what all the hoopla was about." Hermione rolled off the tree and started walking slowly, while he followed behind, occasionally tugging on her hair. "They say when a boy pulls on a girls hair, he likes them."

"It's probably true." Draco ran a hand down her arm and walked ahead of her, pulling up tall grass in his hands. He looked the small stem up and down before pulling out his wand and performing a simple transfiguration spell. In no time, he held a small, golden yellow flute in his hands. "Do you play any instruments."

"I took violin for a while, and the flute, but once I proved hopeless at it, my parents gave up on me." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I rather wish they hadn't. It would be nice to play something."

Draco handed her the little flute and leaned against another tree. "I guarantee you'll be able to play this flute. Whatever you want to hear, it will help you play."

"This is petty magicians magic. A street fair trick." Hermione scoffed. Yet she held the instrument up to her lips and blew into it, her fingers moving randomly over the little holes.

The succession of notes came out to lovely and sweet, Hermione had to gasp. Usually the street fair piccolos and recorders played ancient pop songs or traditional favorites like Danny Boy. Once, during the Whit-a-log Centennial, Hermione found one that played Madonna's "Like A Virgin" in three different keys. Yet this little thing… It played the music in her head and in her soul. Like a mirror reflecting back her emotions in a different language. The high trills falling down the scale into deep, rich tones, before swelling into a rousing anthem of quarter and full notes. She blew in again, and as her fingers danced over the instrument, more flowing sounds issued from the instrument, sometimes harmonizing amoung themselves.

Hermione had never heard anything more beautiful.

Draco gave her a soft smirk, half pleased with himself and half pleased with her. "It takes a rather skilled wizard to do that, you know. Not just anyone."

"I wouldn't dare try to replicate it." Hermione answered with awe.

"Do you want it?"

"I would love it. Are you sure?"

He just shrugged. "I can always make another one. I just have to be happy when I do so. It's kind of like my own patronus."

Hermione gave him an astonished, slack-jaw look that made him laugh with embarrassment. He couldn't do a patronus?

A sudden burst of wind caught their attention, followed by a thud. The air became thick with the sounds of crackles and snaps, and the whoosh of a falling tree could be heard just a little ways off. Hermione shoved the flute into her back pocket and pulled out her wand, coming back to rest shoulder to shoulder with the blonde man behind her. They didn't speak, didn't move, but they communicated with each other through a series of sharp looks and head tilting. The level of noise kept growing louder and louder, swelling and expanding around them. Hermione whispered a spell under her breath and a little silvery light poured out of her wand tip. The shape of an otter took form and scurried away into the dense undergrowth in front of them. While Draco admired the receding tail of light, Hermione turned and whispered in his ear so her lips tickled just a hairs width away; "I'll teach you."

* * *

><p><strong>Well there's that. Please review. I'm thinking I ought to have a good, round number of 135 reviews. Now, I'm not the sort of goon who won't update until I get that many, but just for consideration, it would compel me to spend my free time working on this rather than my novel. Although my novel is brilliant, no body loves it immediately and tells me things about it, unlike here, where it's almost instant gratification. Please review!<strong>


	22. Chapter 22

**Basically, I had to convince myself that happy endings are okay too. I wanted to kill a couple people, but I think I'll save that for later. Read and review! I would very much appretiate 140, if you all can manage. I know it wouldn't hurt you a bit just say "Great job!" or "Oi. What the heck is that?" **

Thunderous rolls echoed over the barren skies, ruffling the leaves on their branches with pure sound. Then the wind picked up, and what only caught you as slight breeze now flew straight in your face as the gale it really was. Hermione grabbed Draco's arm to steady herself as her hair stood straight back and the stray foliage whipped around like possessed beings. Too far to call for help, and not sure their voices could be heard over the squall, the two wizards held hands and stood fast.

But as quickly as it came, it left again, and everything became so eerily still, Draco could feel the hairs on his arm settle into place after their windswept state.

"I don't suppose you want to see what just happened?" Hermione inquired, a good-natured expression on her face.

Draco smiled and took her hand.

"Geronimo." He whispered.

* * *

><p>Haymitch, having been completely blown over by the wind, grumbled loudly bout the state of his loins while everyone else assessed damage. No one had been killed, but a child had been hit in the head and now bled profusely enough to make every anxious.<p>

"Another trick of the arena, probably." Cato muttered, kicking at the dirt. "Just when we thought we were safe."

Clove gave him a dark look. "We're never going to be safe here."

"What about Hermione and Draco? They wandered off almost an hour ago, and we haven't seen them since!" Bill cursed profusely and started to shake. "Oh god, don't let me loose them too."

Thresh, noticing the climbing tensions of everyone in the vicinity and not having a clue what to do suggested they start moving. "Maybe we'll find them and figure out what the hell is going on."

At this suggestion, Haymitch leaped to his feet, wobbling a bit but determined to make a stand. "We can't leave!" He hollered. "This is where the portal can be opened, and if we leave, we'll never know where it is again."

Katniss stood by her mentor's side. "I agree. Hermione and Draco are smart. They'll find us. Mean while we should defend our place. Let them come to us."

Peeta and Glimmer went and stood next to the drunk and the warrioress, but Cato and Clove stood with Bill. Gale didn't choose a side, choosing instead to let the tributes and their weird friends duke it out. He stood off with Prim and the other children, but Prim wouldn't stop egging Katniss on to beat up the opposition.

"If we stay here, we won't have the best position of defense." Bill pointed at the sloping hills just above them. "We're in a bowl, and they want to fill it with blood."

"If we leave this spot, we may never get out of the arena." Haymitch jibed. "The cyber defenses are at their weakest right here. They won't be able to reach us anywhere else."

Prim shouted then; "Take him Haymitch! Take him out!"

Haymitch growled menacingly, but didn't move.

"We have to stay. How else will they find us?" Katniss argued.

"And in the meantime how much else will?" Clove snapped.

"We've been here a long time with nothing. You're just scared now." said Peeta.

"Well that was before a freaky windstorm wasn't it." sassed Clove. "Who knows what it dragged in with it."

Thresh held up his hands. "We can't fight like this. We have to stay unified."

"I think everyone would have done well enough without all of this-" Glimmer waved her hands at everyone. "messing everything up. Babysitting and defending. We were better with every one to themselves."

"We've survived together for this long." Bill shouted back. "You wouldn't have gotten here without us. No mere muggle would survive the horrors here."

"Again with that word!" Clove screeched. "What the hell does that even mean! Who do you think you are?"

Rolling up his sleeves, Cato started advancing into the middle. "You aren't even man enough to face us without your stupid stick."

Bill quirked an eyebrow. "My stupid stick? You mean the one that does this?" Flicking the wand and narrowing his eyes, Bill muttered a spell, and a jet of red light sent Cato flying into the air and away from the conflict. When Clove tried to protest, he petrified her, and when Haymitch had the audacity to look a bit shocked, he conjured a bottle in his hand.

"And you're that sweet lady's husband. I wonder what she sees in you." He muttered before taking a drink out of the bottle and attempting to totter away. However, his comment gave Bill goosebumps and the red-head turned Haymitch around to face him.

"You don't know my wife." He hissed.

"No, I don't." Haymitch repeated dumbly.

"Then why did you say that?"

"No reason. Just what I saw from the Games when they were still airing…" Haymitch looked thoughtful and then nodded. "And when I saw her tits."

"Give me that." Bill took the bottle away and held it away at arms length. "What do you mean her tits? When did you see those?"

Haymitch screwed up his lips and wrinkled his nose. "If you stay here and wait for the portal, you'll find out. And may I congratulate you. She has lovely tits."

Then, as if the excitement had been too much, he lay down on the grass and passed out, a content look on his face. At this moment, Draco and Hermione rushed into the scene and both were aghast at the scene that met them.

"What happened!" Hermione exclaimed. She saw Glimmer leaning over Cato, who looked extremely bruised, and Clove, who wasn't moving, with Thresh at her feet, added to Bill standing over Haymitch's spread-eagle body, a weak grin on his face.

"We're staying here." Bill smiled.

"You might want to think about that," Draco said, a glum look passing over his face. "when you hear what we've seen."

When they finally gathered everyone around a campfire, and put the children to bed, Hermione and Draco launched into their narrative, in which they frequently interrupted each other and laughed at one another, much to everyone's annoyance. Cato wouldn't look at Bill and Clove avoided the attentions of Thresh for no other reason than he'd been very attentive to her in her frozen state. All of the tension did nothing to the seriousness of the situation though, and they listened attentively to the story.

Apparently, the arena had a self-destruct capacity. The wind seemed to have been caused by a massive section east of the cornucopia being sucked into the ground, leaving nothing but an enormous, empty hole. Imagining the destruction, everyone wondered what would come of them if they were in the next place the arena destroyed.

"Then it doesn't matter where we are. It just matters how soon they can open up the portal." Bill reasoned. "And since the best place to open up the portal is here, we should stay here."

"And perhaps the arena will destroy itself methodically." Hermione shrugged. "But we have no way of knowing that for sure."

"One thing's for sure," Draco muttered. "We won't have long in the arena either way."

* * *

><p>Fleur didn't let anyone else in her special room for a long while, preferring to deal with her messes and problems herself. Even when Jenny Doreen tried to bring her a last bit of tea in the kitchen, Fleur refused to unbolt the door. The gentle tinkle of a wind chime caught her attention and made her smile in pleasure. She willed a sea breeze to flow over her face and reached over to stroke the heads of sunflowers in a blue vase. No one would enter this room until her husband came to her again.<p>

Willard found unlikely companionship with Marvel, as they guarded the door together. After a series of failures and near-fatal mishaps, they took the pimply boy off the computers and put him back at his original post. He confided to the former tribute that he knew the job meant nothing, and they only had it to keep him busy.

"I'm just a pity case. They keep me on because I have no where else to go." Willard sniffed, and Marvel smirked.

The relationship was rather one-sided.

Edmund moved on from trying to flirt with Fleur and went back into his old habits, which pleased Jenny Doreen plenty. Willard couldn't get into the kitchen once because they had locked the door for a reason unbeknownst to him, but the rest of the crew figured out quickly enough. Aside from random breaks for coitus or the bathroom, most people were working around the clock to power up their portal. And in light of the recent cave ins at the arena, they couldn't get it going a moment too soon.

"And we have reached maximum power." Ma'am Dubarcy announced, eyeballing the monitors. "How long can you keep it open Abner?"

"I'd give it five minutes if the situations ideal." He ran the numbers in his head. "A minute an' a half if things go as they usa'lly do."

Ma'am Dubarcy nodded. "Right. When can you bypass the firewalls?"

Lora pushed her glasses up her nose before answering. "Give me an hour and a half."

"Fantastic. You're promoted." Ma'am Dubarcy winked.

"Do I get benefits?" Lora didn't look up from her work, but her face reflected the sardonic tone of her voice. Ma'am Dubarcy just laughed.

"Volunteers don't get benefits. But when you get a spot on the committee, perhaps I'll put in a good word for you."

Within two hours, the team had readied their portal and were just waiting to press the button that would save the lives of the tributes. So they turned on the camera feed to see what they were doing. The tributes and their companions were seated around a campfire, with the children lying nearby. Everyone looked exhausted and dirty, but they seemed animated in their discussion and fervent in their arguments. No matter the hour, Ma'am noted, they seemed to be arguing something.

"Open the portal." She called.

Sparks of familiar silver light first alerted the tributes that their salvation had come. Bill quickly ran over and woke up the children, lining them up in front of the opening hole in their universe. The children cried and shuddered in the cold, but everyone consoled them and urged them to be brave. When the hole opened to it's widest point, Glimmer stood in the front and pushed the hesitant kids through. Once they were all safely through, she dove in first, followed by Cato and Clove's mad scramble to get in over each other. Then Thresh entered at Bill's urging, and he dragged Haymitch behind him. Katniss followed up behind, and her boys wasted no time in following. Only the wizards were left.

Then the ground began to shake.

"Hermione, go now!" Draco shouted as a roar overtook them, and wind flushed past them.

"Get Bill!" She responded, grabbing Weasley's arm and pulling him toward it. He seemed petrified for some reason, as if entering would break his heart and destroy the little hope he harbored. They managed to push his head in and he shot through and out of sight.

And the portal began to waver in the wind. The bright silver light they were bathed in flickered and Draco grabbed Hermione's hand and jumped through.

Then the ground beneath their feet disappeared and the wind ripped a shoe off her foot as she was pulled through the doorway of life.

When they opened the eyes they didn't remember closing, they were sitting in a sterile, concrete room with a large glass window. On the other side of the window stood a group of grinning, unfamiliar faces. When Hermione raised a hand to wave awkwardly, the strangers whooped and burst into cheers.

**I sort of think this is the end of part one. I don't really have it divided up that way, but I'm thinking if there was one, this would be it. So please review!**


	23. Chapter 23

**To all my readers, thank you. You went above and beyond, as you always do. Never stop being wonderful! To specific readers: Ash: FanFiction does not allow the posting of emails. May I suggest making an account and PM-ing me? A: I'm sorry if the language bothers you. I try to keep it mild, since I don't cuss myself, but I also want it to be realistic. I know this may irk your friend's parents, but it's my artistic choice. **

**And I will not be posting a little "In the previous chapter…" segment in the beginning of my new chapters. This isn't a soap opera. If you can't remember, read the last chapter and I promise you'll get it. **

**And to everyone; Listen to Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini Op.43 It rules my life right now. Then Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. **

**Also, I know you all really like Draco/Katniss. And maybe later, but I'm a Dramione shipper at heart and this was always meant to be a Dramione. So I'm putting some closure on that topic for now. Thank you for liking my choices the way you do! It's always such a pleasure to have input, even if I am heartlessly ignoring it. Sorry, my loves, but you'll see the turn of events, and things will happen for Katniss that you won't believe!**

_**Part 2**_

The tributes and wizards were glad to take a rest. So glad, in fact, they slept for nearly a day and a half, and ate so voraciously, Jenny Doreen had to go out and find more food because they completely ran out. Hermione's theory of interment worked, and even though they had been eating conjured and transfigured foods for days, they were not immediately emaciated upon leaving the arena. But to e safe, they worked hard to keep up their nutrition and fullness, just in case.

As happy as all the tributes were, none were quite so happy as Bill. Acting in a very secretive manner, they led him to a door and told him to enter. No one wanted to stay and hear "I-thought-you-died" coitus, but the absolute glee emanating from that room made everyone happy for a while. Draco and Hermione immersed themselves in helping the Extraction Team pack up and get ready to head for "District 13" but for one reason or another, avoided seeing each other. Katniss first noticed their distance and took advantage of it, taking every opportunity to be with Draco and talk to him.

He first noticed her pursuit when she started packing a box with him, wrapping up computer pieces with newspapers and handing them to him.

"How are you, Katniss?" He asked, not looking up.

"I'm fine." She stoically responded.

"How are things with Peeta and Gale."

Katniss nearly dropped the keyboard in her hands and balked. "What?"

Draco just continued packing. "They both like you. You should probably consider choosing one so you can end their petty quarrelling. A row over love now, that would be romantic. They ruin the idea by just picking at each other all the time."

"They're neither my type." She sniffed.

"You don't have a type, Katniss. You never even thought of having a type until someone, probably Parisian Fleur, brought it up and you needed to have one. Don't be this juvenile." Draco looked her in the eye and she backed up. "I'm too old for you. I always was. Maybe it's very hard in the arena when tensions are high and we all face certain death and those things don't matter, but I should have known better. I'm sorry."

Katniss' expression didn't change. She didn't sob or look even the slightest bit hurt by his words. She just shrugged and nodded, going back to packing. "I always knew you were too old for me."

Draco bobbed his head in agreement, but he still felt confused. He had not expected this reaction. "So you're fine?"

"Of course."

"And Peeta and Gale?"

"Still not my type."

"Right." Draco smirked, and Katniss shoved him a bit.

* * *

><p>"I did it." The blonde wizard approached the curly-haired girl sitting in the corner. "I told her."<p>

Hermione nodded appreciatively. "Very noble."

"You asked." He pointed out.

"I think you would have done it anyway. You knew she needed closure."

"Perhaps she did," Draco mused. "But you needed it more."

"I won't deny it." Hermione took Draco's hand and stroked the fingers gently. "Does it make me sound horribly jealous?"

Draco held his other fingers an inch apart. "This much so." She laughed, but he continued on. "I like it."

"So do I." She murmured.

Draco took her fingers to his lips, and he brushed them against his lips before kissing each knuckle and the top of her hand.

* * *

><p>On the other hand, Fleur figured out why she became sick.<p>

"Everyone, I have an announcement to make!" She and Bill exited the special room no one had scene yet. "I believe…" She looked at Bill for support and smiled demurely under his warm gaze. "We believe I am with child."

"You don't waste any time, do you?" Edmund grumbled, looking pointedly at Bill. "I concede. You deserve her if you can manage that."

In spite of his confusion at the statement, Bill carried on the explanation for his wife. "We think the "cooking" process you all described also caught the unborn baby and was able to match it to her. It will have to grow again, but our tests say the baby is more than fine."

"That's wonderful!" Hermione leaped up and embraced her friends. "We may have a happy ending after all!"

"Congratulations, again." Draco shook Bill's hand cordially and the two men smiled together. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and surviving the Hunger Games is one of them.

* * *

><p>The next few days were spent in a flurry of planning and dreaming, a grand hope for schemes unknown. All involved were aching for retribution against the Capital and to restore some kind of freedom to the oppressed masses just outside their door. With the combined forces of magical power and modern technology, many ideas were flung back and forth over cups of lukewarm coffee and dry haggis sandwiches every one learned to eat. Although each person found themselves growing more and more anxious, they were content in their current circumstances, knowing the peace would not last beyond a few days. Plans had to be put into motion, and they all knew they were the only ones capable of doing so with any hope of success.<p>

Yet secret doubts hid away in recesses of the mind and floundered in and out of publication. No one would say a word to anyone else, fearing their commitment would be questioned or their sanity under investigation. Who wouldn't want to take down President Lucius Snow and restore political stability to Panem? Who wouldn't want to be so directly involved with this little band of vigilant heroes and their immediate ability to save the world?

So on one, quiet evening, as the night shift clocked on and a few souls dozed away in little cots by the wall, when a tear fell to the ground, no one was likely to notice, except the one person who noticed everything about her, even when she didn't seem to notice him...

"Hermione?" Draco, from his cot next to hers, immediately reached out and touched her face before drawing back, unsure of what was permitted now. He may have gotten away with invading her personal space during the day, but this was darkness and sorrow, and it was a land he had never before seen. "Are you alright?"

"Do you think it's worth it? For us, I mean?" She scrunched up her nose, trying to keep from crying, but she could already feel the prickles taking over her eyes. "We don't belong here, we don't owe them anything. Why should we stay and help?"

Draco thought about that. "We were wronged, I suppose. But they clearly have bigger problems here than corruption. My father…"

"But it doesn't affect us if we leave! We could just go back and be normal and not have to worry about it." She finally sobbed, but she bit back the effect of it.

"There's magic involved. I don't think we could possibly escape it forever. It would eventually outgrow the little scheme here and move on to wreck it's destruction else where. I think it wouldn't be wise to abandon it now that we are aware of it." Draco stared up at the ceiling as he spoke, hoping he chose the right words.

Apparently not, as Hermione now began to cry in earnest, silently shaking in her cot. "I know! I know! But I'm scared! I don't know my enemy this time and I don't want to lose…"

"None of us want to lose." Draco started, but Hermione cut him off.

"You! Moron, I don't want to lose you!" She sniffed and composed herself. "Or Bill or Fleur or Katniss or anybody."

His heart raced a little bit as he thought about the complexity of their situation. He had refrained himself long enough to prove he was a gentleman, but his passionate side yearned to be revealed. So he reached out and touched her face gently, but didn't comment on her meaning, rather pressing on with her fear. "You faced loosing people before. How is this different?"

"It isn't." She insisted stubbornly. "It's the same aside from a few details. Hardly consequential."

"Did you cry then?"

"More often, I'd assume. I was a teenager. This one is different because I have to choose to be involved. My choice determines who I will ultimately lose."

"Scoot over."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Pardon?"

"Scoot, I coming over." Draco pushed back his blanket, and started to climb over to her.

"I have to object, Draco. It's hardly appropriate…"

"Relax, Hermione. Now please move a bit."

He settled in next to her and draped an arm over her waist, allowing her to snuggle into his chest in spite of her earlier objections. He kissed her hair line and supported his head on the one hand he had propped up from the elbow. They laid quietly for a second, getting use to the proximity before Draco finally broke the silence, his fingers never stopping their delicate dance on her side.

"Do you know I'm nervous about losing you?" He inquired, gazing down at her face.

"Yes. You're fairly obvious about your attraction to me." She answered nonchalantly. "I shouldn't have said anything had I not imagined you didn't know how I felt."

"Sometimes you're hard to read. But I would not have been so advertent about my feelings had you not given some inclination of yours." He leaned closer and let his nose touch the farthest bit of hair just ever so slightly, with the vernal curls floating well away from her head.

Hermione laughed. "According to my calculations we pretty well match, aside from a few minor things."

"Such as?" Draco queried, his eagerness increasing with every word spoken between them.

"You think our feelings permit such things as climbing into bed with each other, however platonically meant. I do not."

"What?"

"Get back in your own bed, you louse. I'm stable again, and I hardly need you and your enviable testosterone confusing me anymore." She answered with a shove.

So Draco returned to his bed with his pride smarting, but his heart excited by the banter and language between them and the confessions made. Sorrow and darkness were a land conquered, by his expectations, and he intended to remain king of this land for some time.

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><p><strong>Well, here we start again. A bit of fluff in there for you as well. I hope you enjoy, because I have some heart wrenching changes, and a twist you won't expect. However, believability is thrown into question by my ideas, which would be an issue if I wasn't so easy going and you all didn't love me as much as you do.<strong>

**REVIEW.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Happy Christmas! I hope you all had as lovely a day as I. (Les Mis, guys. Ooooh man.) Here is my late present for you, and I hope you aren't to sorely dissapointed it it. I like it a bit. Even if it is sporadic. Have a wonderful New Year!**

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><p>It was decided that the extraction team would leave very early on a Monday morning so they could slip into the crowds and disappear with those who were headed to work in the morning hours. The small warehouse they had previously been occupying was scheduled for demolition soon, so they didn't have much choice in the matter. Now that the Games had finally ended, news from the Districts had finally been intercepted and the team realized just how much of an impact the wayward competition had on the people. Dissention and unrest rampantly consumed each of the factions in their own corners and it festered and brewed under the surface, goaded by the hot pokers of activists and rabble-rousers who all itched for a clash between political injustice and social reform. While reading the reports one evening, with Hermione, Draco found the situation in District four the most intriguing.<p>

"Sea captains who were promoted from within the District and not brought in by the government are a small percent of the men in charge on the sea, but it seems they wield the most power and influence over the community. Rumor has it that one burly fellow has been arming the people in the district since he first received his promotion." Draco ran his finger down the page until he found the next section. "And this young woman has been stealing hooks and nets from her father for years and making very deadly weapons. Here's a picture of a peacekeeper that got caught in one…"

Hermione looked at the picture, mildly disgusted. The hooks were clearly rusty and infected, because the wounds were irritated and sappy, some even swelled into pustules, completely deforming his face and shoulder, both of which caught the brunt of the attack. "It will definitely be a district to reckon with."

"Currently the only insurrections are isolated and uncommon. Yet if they try to pursue the offenders, they don't know what the city itself will do to retaliate." Draco smiled to himself. "I think I like this one immensely."

"The Capitol has bombed entire districts before. If it seems like they can't recapture, they'll simply destroy it." Hermione warned.

"Yes, but it's the spirit of the people that's so infectious. If you drop a bomb on them, then the rest of the districts will be positively outraged." He grinned at the reports before placing them back in the box from which they came. "They are the beginning of the whole revolution."

"And you are a dreamer, Draco Malfoy. How did you ever make such fanciful, romantic views of revolution look so attractive?" Chuckled Hermione as she picked up a box to be carried away.

They were to be divided into groups of two or three, each with the purpose of bringing some supply of equipment to their rendezvous that evening. They poured over maps of the old underground system and roadways, trying to find the optimal paths for each of the groups to follow. Edmund and Jenny Doreen were to carry food and monitors, taking a route through the alley ways that crisscrossed the town, and Abner, Angelo, and Willard were going to take up with a group of townies. They already procured the gear necessary and were ready to leave as soon as the out of town miners would march out of the city that morning. All of the wizards were matched with muggles to lead through the underground passages and clear out the debris that may block their paths. Hermione and Gale were taking the north route, Draco, Cato, and Peeta were all traveling a southern route, Fleur, Glimmer, Katniss, and Clove were zigzagging through the eastern pass, and Bill, Thresh, and Marvel were utilizing the west.

"Lora and I will take the children above ground. We'll masquerade as a school group or something. I believe we will be able to meet you a bit after seven if we take Glitter Avenue on through Whispering Boulevard." Ma'am Dubarcy dragged her long nails over the map as she illustrated her path.

"What queer names." Hermione wondered.

"And what am I supposed to do?" Haymitch grumbled, upset that he had not yet been mentioned in the plans.

"You will leave the same way you came in." Ma'am Dubarcy smirked.

"They won't let me leave the Capitol after the mess in the Games. Someone knows I'm responsible, or at least assumes I'm directly involved. They'll have me watched all the time…" He coughed into his hand and grumbled before saying. "It's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible for someone who can be as inebriated as you but still manage to control this outfit. You will make it to District 13 by next week in time for the meeting with the President. I expect to see you there before us, even." The Ma'am gave Haymitch a challenging stare and turned away from him.

Willard sniffled a little, but didn't move towards Haymitch as he and his companions left to join the train of men headed outside the city. As they shuffled along in the line, their shovels slung over their shoulders and their ratty packs inconspicuously hanging off their shoulders. Ambling along behind their compatriots, the three men maintained a silence no one dared to break as long as they remained in the city.

They took the back way out, so the people of the city wouldn't see the poor, dirty people that lived under their streets and cleaned up their messes. They only saw the clean, chic Avoxi that served their meals and swept their floors. All of the confetti in the streets and the sewage floating out of the city, was handled by those who had a fate much worse than the loss of a tongue.

Angelo, Abner, and Willard were all chosen for this particular route out because of two, very specific qualities; the first, being that they were men and could easily slip in unnoticed among the herd, the second being that they all had significant deformities.

It had gone largely unnoticed to the wizards that their extraction team had been misfits and unwanted, kicked out of the main base at District 13 because of some misdemeanor or oddity that made them undesirable. The job of saving the tributes was an underrated and generally simple job that required little attention most other Games. This one had been such a sudden and shocking event, the band of computer warriors who had the post were completely surprised and took their time mobilizing into action. Had a more professional team been in residence at the time, the tributes would have been out in a matter of hours, not days, and the climate in the Games would have deteriorated not soon after. But Coin did not for see any immediate danger, since the Games had been running smoothly enough for the past few years, and no one as ready to overhaul the system just yet. Still, they kept the precaution staffed, even if it was with their wounded and rebellious. But they would never tell the tributes how under qualified they were for the task of leading and protecting them.

Willard's left arm didn't move, but he was careful to swing it around so no one would suspect his paralysis. Angelo was missing a foot and three fingers, and Abner walked with such a limp, one could only guess at how broken he was inside. They fit in well with the men who were missing chunks of face and limbs, even though they were not near so decrepit.

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><p>Hermione and Gale dropped into a manhole in the Sunshine Quarter, lowering their bags gently to each other so not to break the expensive equipment inside. They marched down the dank, empty corridor in silence, neither one sure of what to say to each other. They would be down in the dark for a day or so, if they moved quickly and with few impediments. With the combined fear of having to eventually talk to one another fresh in their minds, they ambled along, avoiding all eye contact. Hermione lit the way with her wand, which gave Gale some unease, but he said nothing.<p>

Soon enough they came to a section that had caved in and was impassable. The time had come. They had to talk.

"Well, we passed a joining branch some ways back." Hermione pulled the map out of her back pack and stared at it intently. "Maybe it joins up with our route again."

"No, it doesn't." Gale turned it to the side so it lay in front of them as the real world did. "It ends at this station, which is used to house the townies, according to Edmund."

"Right." Hermione sized up the damage in front of her. "Looks like I'll have to plow us through."

"I could just move the rocks…" Gale offered, not liking the use of magic to be so near to him.

"Nonsense. It would take too long and would be much too hard on you. It's no trouble for me at all, of you don't mind helping me a bit." Hermione tried not to be too domineering, but she didn't see how else to manage it. Harry and Ron never minded her being in charge and making the decisions, but Gale had a more obstinate nature than either of them. His manly pride could be easily wounded by a woman who disregarded his ability to help and be useful. Hermione never liked bruising a man's pride.

"Go ahead." Gale sulked, and backed far away from her wand. He watched glumly from the corner as she lifted her wand and started muttering spells. Shots of liquid light spurted from her stick and encompassed the rocks in front of her. As stone by stone disappeared, Hermione took a break from focusing on her spellwork and looked to the side. Gale glared at the quickly appearing tunnel with malice and distaste, giving Hermione a sick feeling in her stomach.

"Oh." She clutched her head for a moments and pretended to stumble a bit, but kept her wand steady. "Ooh!"

"What's wrong?" Gale went from sullen to concerned in a split second, and he stood straight up from the wall he had been leaning against.

"I…" Hermione struggled to find words that would make her sound weak. "I… It's nothing, I can manage…" She pretended to stumble again. "Oh my head."

"Is this magic too hard for you?" Gale raised a brow and turned to look at the tunnel in front of him. "If you can't handle it, you should stop."

"I can do it." Hermione shrugged him off weakly, but then, in a moment of dramatic brilliance, she fell to her knees. She landed a bit hard, so that particular yelp of pain was real, but Gale didn't know it wasn't a direct result of her magicking.

"Hermione, take break. You'll do yourself no good if you kill yourself trying." Gale, suddenly protective and kind, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back, as if moving her position would pull her back from the work that seemingly sucked the life out of her.

Her added spells were now beginning to take effect in the tunnel, and she knew she could very soon disconnect and let her Patronus take over. If she hadn't decided to make Gale feel like a protector, she could have easily done things by herself, but as the situation called for improvisation, so she answered. Disconnecting herself, Hermione let herself fall back into his waiting arms in a pretend faint, gasping dramatically.

"That was much harder than I anticipated…" She sighed.

"We'll take a break here. You can finish the tunnel later, if you have your strength." He lay he down the beside the wall, gravel crunching under his feet as he turned on his heels to grab their backpack full of supplies. When he reached it, he was alarmed to notice that more things dwelled inside than just the expected items. "What's this?"

"Oh, I put a spell on all the bags so we could carry more. Give it to me, I'll find it." Hermione didn't mean to be snappy, but he had been in the room when all the wizards enchanted everything to fit in their small bags. A room full of equipment, narrowed down into seven back packs and a handbag. Ma'am Dubarcy had been utterly delighted and showed a real smile. That alone made the event something worth remembering.

Gale handed her the bag and sat down next to her. "How long until you're well again?"

"I'll be on my feet soon enough. I just need a small rest."

Hermione feared, however, that her small rest would soon grow to be more if she intended to keep up the pretense of being femininely weak just for the sake of his manhood.

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	25. Chapter 25

**Thanks for waiting so patiently, my dears. I desperetely hope you enjoy, because this was a treat to write, although I'll admit it's a bit sappy. But eh, whats fanfiction without some serious sap?**

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><p>Draco had a hard time keeping his head. Peeta and Cato of course, made no such provisions for their own and insisted on disagreeing whenever they had the opportunity. Finding their endless quarrelling tiresome, Draco had chosen instead to ignore and focus on other things. Namely, Hermione, but he wouldn't actually say it out loud. He was exceptionally jealous that she and Gale were sequestered off in dark corners and dimly lit paths while he managed to stumble along under florescent lighting with two obnoxious boys. He just imagined the muggle lad being so heroic and dashing that Hermione, weak woman that she was, would fall into his arms worshipping and adoring him.<p>

But of course, his senses got the better of him. Knowing her the way he did, Draco knew Hermione wouldn't be easily swayed in her opinions. But it wasn't as if he had a monopoly on her or anything. She was free and unassuming, able to choose who she wanted and do as she pleased. Of course he adored her, but she had yet to promise herself to him, and as such remained unattached to anyone.

So he thought instead about how she would run into his arms when they saw each other again. Maybe they would kiss, something he hadn't been quite able to do yet. Perhaps she would swear her undying love and their passion would lead them into the realms of bliss and ecstasy that were off limits to those who didn't know love. He imagined his hand, knotted in her hair, holding those infernal lips of temptation to his face and kissing her harder than she'd ever known. He imagined her hands stroking his arms and chest, reaching lower and lower. He imagined himself hardening and aroused…

No, he wasn't imagining that bit. He quickly swung his messenger bag more to the front to hide his feelings from his companions. He had managed to look so cool up to this point, it would destroy him if they thought he was any less than that.

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><p>To the chagrin of the more adventurous, the trek through the Capitol was met with little resistance or blockade. In the caution of the team, all kinds of situations were prepared for, and when none were met, it left everyone with this weird feeling of emptiness. Nobody nearly died? The day was incomplete. While these morbid thoughts fluttered around everyone's minds as they waited at the rendezvous point for the anticlimactic revealing of new arrivals, it became obvious that one pair was obviously missing.<p>

"Where are Hermione and Gale?" Draco asked, looked at the small crowd in front of him. "They should have been here by now!"

A thrill went through everyone at the prospect of something even remotely exciting happening.

"They were projected to have come out of the tunnel today, right?" Draco asked, approaching Ma'am Dubarcy, who held the clipboard of answers in her hand.

"Yes. They were, barring no unforeseen incidents." She confirmed, giving Draco the list so he could see for himself. "Perhaps there was some sort of problem we couldn't account for…"

"I knew things were going too smoothly." Draco gritted his teeth and began to pace. "Am I allowed to go after her… ah, them?"

"Not yet. They may be just around the corner and could come up any minute." She cautioned. "You wouldn't want to cause any disturbances."

Exhaling deeply, Draco tried to calm himself down. "Right, of course. The day isn't over yet."

The situation of the team wasn't exactly ideal. They had escaped the confines of the Capitol walls certainly, and were hiding in an abandoned warehouse. Abner had managed to clean its location for patrol from all of the flight programs for the hovercraft, and they would remain unseen there for long enough, but it was a dank and empty place. Ivy covered the walls and small creatures scuttled along in the shadows, unseen by the human overlords that reluctantly occupied their space. In the minds of the tributes and the wizards, it was more like the arena than they wanted to admit, and the similarities were nerve wracking. Yet the atmosphere seemed lazier here, and the people certainly felt no need to rush on with things. They contented themselves with sitting in the sun and laying back on the slabs of concrete that had tumbled over in the buildings long duration of disrepair. Glimmer and Cato were cuddled together in one corner, kissing occasionally, while Thresh occupied himself with the children. The extraction team had searched relentlessly for his sister, but she could not be found. They assumed that her existence had not been logged for recovery and therefore had not been saved. While the news was crushing, it had given him enough closure to move on and work on the more existential problems. Yet he had managed to adopt two little girls from the group named Aline and Dorcas, both of whom adored him completely.

Around twilight, just as Draco's anxious energy was reaching new levels of excitement, a loud rattling could be heard coming from the small copper tunnel in the ground. While the underground had once been easy to walk through, the ventilation shafts that lead to the surface were only glamourized crawl spaces. So to hear such noises and grunts coming through were alarming enough, but to know they came from the underground directly was just enough to send Draco into a panic.

"Hermione? Gale? Are you down there?" He sat at the entrance of the hole, peering into the darkness. A small glow was being emitted around the corner, reflected on the, shiny copper sides.

"We're… working on… it." Gale called, his voice strained. "At least, I am. She's out cold."

"Oh merlin." Draco almost had a fit on the grass. "Do you need help? Is she hurt?"

"I think this magic is wiping her out. She refuses to take out her wand light, even though it's directly connected to her life source." Gale called back. "If you could come down enough to pull her arms, I think we could get her out faster."

Draco, nonplussed, pursed his lips, trying to understand the information. "Her magic is tied to her life force?"

"You're a wizard too, mate. Just help me get her out!" The voice echoed around, sounding more and more frenzied with every reverberation. So Draco lay on his belly and slid down into the tube, his own wand lit up to see what was going on before him. When he rounded the first corner in the darkness, he met with a confusing sight.

Hermione sprawled about as she was, looked unbearably attractive, but somehow incredibly weak. She was pale and waxen, her eyes shut but her lips parted. Clutching her wand in one hand, her knuckles were white, but he couldn't help but notice how relaxed she appeared regardless.

"She passed out a while back while we were walking through the tunnels. She had just cleared a lot of rubble away, so I guess she was exhausted by the effort, but I've had to carry her for a long time. I thought I was going to be nothing more than a pansy pack mule on this trip, but I've been pretty much indispensable to the operation. If you can carry her up, I let a bag slip down to make it easier. I'll go get it really fast." So manly Gale turned around and slid down the shallow tunnels, back to the place where he left his bag.

Draco, finally beginning to understand the situation, smirked and pulled out his wand. "Ennervate."

Gasping, Hermione shot up, banging her head on the copper walls and exclaiming an obscenity that made even Draco blush. While rubbing her head, she smiled at Draco. "Thanks. I hoped that someone would think of that. Petrifying yourself is a lot of work, and it's usually more complicated to wake someone after a self-inflicted spell like that."

"I'm just an abnormally good wizard. But if I may ask first, what the hell?"

Hermione smirked at him but ignored his question. "Poor Gale. If I'd known this tunnel was so small, I probably wouldn't have made him drag me through it, but it was getting to be legitimately exhausting pretending to be exhausted." Her face was beginning to regain its natural coloring and her eyes looked less droopy. Feeling this, Hermione began to mutter some spells, and the beautiful, sick looking girl returned. "I'll explain later. Just let's get out of this tunnel."

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><p>Staying true to the "Hermione is completely shattered" story, Draco pulled her out and laid her down in the soft ivy vines that covered the floor of the eastern corner. (Hermione's idea.) Draped over her body were the gentle, vibrant strands of the plant so they would contrast with the whiteness of her skin. (Also Hermione's idea.) Her arms were folded over her chest in a kind of medieval burial position, with her hair splayed out in the many directions is was apt to go. (Draco's idea first, but Hermione gave him props for saying what she was about to say.) Draco had no idea the nerdy, intellectual Hermione could also be a forlorn romantic.<p>

When Gale emerged from the tunnel, sweat gleaming on his brow, tanned, dirty muscles bulging from his torn and ratty T-shirt, and a bag slung over his shoulders, every female swooned audibly. His mop hair had been pushed back from his head and the many different scars and wounds that littered his body didn't seem to mar the surface at all, only add to his perfection. Even Katniss, Draco noticed, had to stare at him for a good long while before shaking her head and turning her attention back to Peeta, who seemed jealous by her momentary distraction. But his gaze turned directly on Hermione, who seemed to feel the smolder acutely, even though her eyes were closed. She squirmed a little in the plants, and Draco understood Peeta's jealously.

Leaning down next to her, Gale pushed Hermione's wild hair away from her cheeks. "Will she be alright?"

Reeling from the utter ridiculousness of the whole situation, Draco could only nod and watch as the woman he loved was kissed on the brow by another man. A manlier man, if Draco had the balls to admit it.

Feeling the warm lips on her forehead, Hermione let her eyes flutter open. "Gale." She rasped. "Thank you."

"I would do it a thousand times over." He swore in a whisper. Draco had to fight back the urge to vomit.

But then Hermione said something that made his heart sing. "You are a great knight, and a great friend, bringing me safely into the arms of Draco without tarnishing my honor. You have proved what being a man is really about."

Gale nodded, but his disappointment was evident. "You are worth every bit of it. I'll admit I didn't like you at all in the beginning, but you've proven yourself where it counts."

Hermione didn't answer, but only smiled weakly before closing her eyes again.

Gale touched her cheek one more time before sighing and walking away to report to Ma'am Dubarcy about their travels. Staying next to Hermione, Draco smirked and leaned down near her ear. Everyone else was still getting used to the idea of Gale being such a passionate speaker, but Draco had been expecting it from him. No one could be that handsome and charismatic without having some knowledge of lover's lingo.

"I didn't know you were such a romantic." He said into her ear, tickling her hairline with his breath.

"Every woman is, especially one as well read as I. Now excuse me, I'm taking a nap."

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><p><strong>REVIEW.<strong>


	26. Chapter 26

**This isn't exactly a plot forwarding chapter. But I like my prose, so you'll have to put up with me. Also, a few keys on my keyboard are just not working very well. Most of my spelling errors and what not can be blamed on that. If I missed anything, it's just an oopsie. Please enjoy my chapter, which I infused with just enough awkward to make it amusing. Thanks a mill. Review your socks off too, if you please.**

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><p>A dark, sinister air swept into the lives of the unassuming Capitol residents as search parties and secret police roamed the streets, not so much a secret anymore. Rumors had abounded about people who suddenly went missing after saying unfavorable things about the president and his regime, but to confirm the idea of a special task force seemed far too preposterous to be believed. Yet they abandoned their disguise and tact and now openly marched in the now deserted streets, rounding up anyone who fell under suspicion.<p>

The disappearance of some ratty renegades had ignited a fire under the Board of Security and they ordered all places searched. For the chairman of the board, their vanishing was a point of personal pride and embarrassment. Tabs had been kept, spies paid, and information found about a little group hiding in the warehouses of the Capitol who thought they could save the tributes from the Games. When they left, Lanier Diver found his position in jeopardy and his life suddenly on the line he had kept very far away from his entire career.

A man of beady eyes and protruding, fish-like lips, Lanier was not used to people paying so much attention to him. He went out of his way to be unseen and unheard, considering his position, not to mention his appearance, were not the most popular of things in the swinging city that dominated Panem. Sweat breaking out on his brow, the intensely private man waited in the little sitting room outside the president's office.

His feet sunk into the blood red carpet, which Mr. Diver tried not see as a metaphor. He wondered if the carpet was blood red because of actual blood or just a morbid preference. Then he thought about his dogs, probably wondering why they hadn't been fed yet.

Then he felt sick.

Since his appointment to the Board of Security, Mr. Diver had all but stopped his public relations. His few friends realized they couldn't talk to him about work anymore, and they didn't care to be too closely associated with him much longer. The loneliness of the job might have dwarfed anyone else, but Lanier Diver had the added help of several fine beasts to keep him company, all of which proved to be more faithful companions than the humans he so often had to come in contact with. Dogs, those perfect creatures, were his family and life, and in the absence of a wife and family, Lanier had depended almost solely on them for his comfort. Now they might be doomed to an uncertain fate, since their owner looked about ready to bite the dust.

Sweat stains pooled under his armpits, and he found himself wishing he'd brought his nicer coat with him to hide it. A tiny beard, just recently in production, seemed to mock him. You thought you would live long enough in this world to have a beard? Hah!

Oh god, he was insane!

"The President will see you now." A sweet, voice called. Lanier looked up from his scuffy, brown shoes to see the soft, perky face of Miss Applebaum, head secretary.

"Oh. Thank you." Mr. Diver stood up, his whole body beginning to quiver. Here it came, the moment of death!

"Right through this door, sir. Take a seat, and President Snow will be out shortly."

Even though he'd fancied her since the Hunger Games Opening ball two years ago, Lanier couldn't help but think she was an angel of death. It didn't do well to fantasize about your sadistic boss' secretary, since she would be leading you to your doom eventually.

He took a seat in one of the slick, vinyl chairs in front of the desk, resting his pudgy hands on his lap. He bit his cheek and scratched at his leg, imagining the many deaths he might endure. After all, as the head of the Board of Security (Which was just a civil way of saying "Law Enforcement.") he'd signed off on many gruesome ends, anyone of which might be his own invention. He didn't think he could handle the irony of being killed by one of his own methods.

Then the tall, imposing figure of the all-powerful president entered the room, and Lanier couldn't help but whimper in fear.

"Well, my good friend, it seems you're in a bit of a pickle." The elegant looking man said earnestly. "And I can't blame you for it, can I? There are many, more deserving inferiors to take the fall."

Lanier thought he was going to faint. He had heard this speech before, when he stood in the corner of this very office, staring at whoever had been brought in for justice, and when standing a deep, red carpet meant something very different to him.

"Except in the end, the inferiors are under your command and your direction. If they fail, it is your leadership that led them… Oh, you poor fellow. I really got you didn't I? You should see your face!" The President, his serious façade now gone, nearly doubled over laughing. "You'll have to excuse me for the joke. I knew it would horrify you. You aren't in trouble, Lanier, old pal. You're too faithful a companion for me to dispose of, and I need the likes of you to hang around. No, I have a different plan I wanted to talk to you about… Oh dear."

Lanier Diver, the feared head of the Secret Police and the inventor of more sadistic deaths than anyone in Panem history, had pissed his pants and fainted.

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><p>"What do you think; are you enjoying this camping out again?" Draco asked Hermione as she shooed bugs away with her hands.<p>

"There certainly weren't insects in the arena. That much is an exasperating reality out here." She hissed as a mosquito bit her on the arm. "Merlin those suckers are huge."

"That was a pun." Draco laughed.

"Pardon?" Hermione snapped, not enjoying his laughter in her miserable state.

"Oh, nothing." Draco sobered, and they kept trudging along.

Behind them, Katniss and Clove and Glimmer engaged in some girl talk that doesn't need to be repeated, except let it suffice to say that Katniss never imagined feminine hygiene would be so different district to district. The boys all followed after them, their joking and guffawing reverberating through the forest with no uncertain terms. As Draco walked ahead of them, he realized how young all of these kids really were, and how quickly these teenagers had to grow up. Never one to dissuade a bit of fun, he didn't bother telling them to be a bit quieter, knowing that Ma'am Dubarcy, who led the children, would be quick to shut them up if their noise levels became too much for safety.

Bill and Fleur, still engaged in a kind of reunion honeymoon, kept attached at the hip as they discussed their lives again, as if they'd never had the discussion before. And the rest of the extraction team, in various moods of drowsy discontent and outright disbelief at the amount of walking involved in a get-away, limbered behind the children.

Their party was complete and unblemished, save for the persistent drunkenness of one man. Haymitch Abernathy had been charged with the task of making it to District 13 without the assistance of the team, a feat that seemed near impossible. Yet the Ma'am seemed to have implicit faith in him, as if he could be counted upon to manage the challenges no one else could, while everyone else thought it was her attempt at pest control.

"Do you want to switch bags?" Draco offered, trying to excite things up in the front of the line.

"What would be the point of that?" Hermione asked, almost condescendingly.

Draco shrugged. "Call me weird, but I think it sounds like a good time."

"Weird." She muttered.

Finally having enough of their awkward game, Draco decided he might as well encourage her to speak her mind on the proverbial pink elephant in the mood, which culminated in one thing; her mood. "What's your problem, Hermione? You've been a bit distant and rude lately, considering I just recently declared my love for you."

"If you intend to pick my brain for an answer as to why I'm less than cordial, you've started at the wrong time, and definitely in the wrong way. I am not interested in discussing the matter."

Draco thought it was cute that she thought her statement closed the matter. As if she had the power to shut up a Malfoy.

"You go from being the friendliest thing in the world, to being nearly cruel. It should be no wonder a bloke would expect an explanation." Draco pushed. "Girls typically like talking about these things."

"Not always." said Hermione with a sour expression.

"That's why I like you. You are so different from every other girl on the planet…"

"If you don't want to dig yourself into a deep hole of insincere compliments and awkward relationship saving tactics, I'd stop now." She warned.

"Just tell me: Is there a relationship to be saved?"

"Of course there is, you nincompoop. Now give me a day or so and I should be stable again." Hermione rubbed her stomach, grimacing a bit. "Sweet Salazar, these cramps will kill me."

And Draco realized why he shouldn't bother her much more on the subject.

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	27. Chapter 27

**Please enjoy and review generously. I don't know what I shall do if I don't make it to 175. Seriously, my dears. I need it.**

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><p>Forests, the farther away from civilization one goes, get messier, denser, and much harder to navigate. In a world where the forested lands are off limits and nobody dares traverse a place they nothing about, woods became the epitome of taboo and the only people capable of leading the band of renegades happened to be two people who spent a lot of time breaking social customs.<p>

"I can't even see her anymore. Are you sure it's wise just to let her stalk ahead like this?" Hermione asked Gale, peering around his shoulder.

"She's fine." He reassured her. "Once we reach her, I'll take the lead and we'll switch off. We aren't sending her ahead all the time with no protection."

Draco pulled Hermione back and held her hand. "You act like her mother. I'm sure she's fine as well; I have complete trust in her abilities."

"It's just been a while since we've seen her. Are you two sure you know what you're doing?" Hermione pried further, Gale's smile become tighter.

"Yes. I've proven that often enough haven't I?" He responded.

"Oh. Yes, of course. Sorry." Hermione stepped back. "Fleur, how are you doing?"

"Absolutely marvelous! This pregnancy is so much nicer. I've only vomited a few times in the past week!"

"Gross." Draco exclaimed.

"Someday you'll have a wife who'll inform you of these things. You may want to consider getting used to it." Hermione chided.

He said nothing, just kept walking.

"Will we be stopping soon? We've been walking for hours?" Edmund said, his voice grumbling up from behind the ranks of people.

"We've only been walking for about twenty minutes." Hermione called back to him. "Chill."

About five minutes later, they stopped. They had met Katniss, who said the trail ahead was more of the same, and since children were dropping down to cry and complain like flies, they decided to stop anyway. Feeling exasperated, Hermione began to wonder about the logistics of apparition here and where she could possibly go and if she could help speed the process along. Talking to Bill about it privately, he decided it wouldn't hurt for her to try. If she could manage to find a safe place, they might cut the distance in half.

"You absolutely can't go alone though. I want someone to go with you and watch your back." He warned.

"Bill, I think I'm very capable of handling this myself. Bringing anyone else along might slow me down." She complained.

"Not if Draco goes with you." He reasoned. "Please Hermione, there is no way I'm letting you do it without him."

"Why not you?" She muttered.

"You were so cozy with him, and now you hesitate to go out alone? Has something changed that I should be aware of?" Bill asked. "Besides, I have a pregnant wife to watch out for."

"You ended both of your sentences with prepositions." She groaned. Kicking the dirt underneath her, she sighed dramatically. "Fine. I'll ask Draco to go with me. We'll be back well before nightfall if we can manage. Stay here though."

"No one very much fancies moving anyway." Bill smirked. "You'll tell me though, if anything is wrong with you and Draco?" Worry lined his features, and Hermione felt the same compassion coming from him she would have felt from an older brother, if she ever had one.

"Now just isn't a good time to pursue a romance, you know? It's just stressful, I guess, and I don't want to have to think about it very much." She smiled grimly. "Nothing is technically wrong though."

"Good. If it ever is though, you know I'll help as best I can."

"I would never deny you an opportunity to use violence against a member of your sex." Hermione smirked and Bill looked at her, a smug and knowing look on his features.

So Hermione approached Draco and asked him to attempt an apparating mission with her. Being the enthusiastic magic user that he was, he agreed instantly and they began mapping out a plan of where they would go and how to they would manage their time.

"We've seen pictures and video footage of the area we're going. It's not time sensitive; I think we could manage it." Hermione tapped her fingers on a tree. "Do you want to try going just a few feet ahead of us, just to make sure we can handle it in this area?"

"Good idea. On the count of three now, one, two , three!"

Success. They were safe enough, in one piece at least, and nothing seemed out of place. So they grabbed hands, took a breath, and disappeared into the air, aiming at a distant place neither had been to before.

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><p>"How the bloody hell did you get here!" Haymitch screeched, throwing a blanket over his downtown. "This is my personal room!"<p>

"It was an accident. We didn't mean…" Hermione tried to explain through her hands, which had immediately shot up to cover her eyes.

"We have better aim than we thought." Draco thought, looking around him. "Are we in District 13 then?"

"Yes. How did you get in here? That door is locked!"

"You're here awfully early. You said you'd have a couple weeks' worth of effort just getting here." Hermione accused, looking at him now with narrowed eyes.

"I got lucky." He grumbled. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Well, you know we're wizards, don't you?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, rabbits out of hats and slight-of-hand." Haymitch grumbled.

Draco looked at Hermione incredulously. Haymitch had been around at the time of their magic usage, and unless he was just that unobservant, he would have seen a bit more than cheap tricks.

"More than that; listen, we want to try and move groups of people here, but we need a safe place to do it. We've decided it wouldn't be in our best interest to have the general populace know what we are." Hermione said, taking control of the situation. "We're really glad you're here, because you can help us with it now, rather than investigating on our own."

"What's wrong with people knowing you can do tricks?" The old, naked man on the bed groaned, turning over and pulling the blankets around him tightly. "Turn around, kid, I'm going to put on some pants."

Promptly turning around, Hermione sighed dramatically. "People tend not to understand magic. It scares them or confuses them, and we don't want to be persecuted because we're different."

Draco, who felt no need to turn around at all, just stared Haymitch in the eyes. "One would assume your attempt to clothe yourself means you're going to help us."

"One would assume right. Do I have to be happy about it?"

"You are in control of your own emotions sir. You do not have to be happy if you don't want to be." Hermione retorted.

Snorting, Haymitch chuckled. "Fine by me. I'll show you to a good place just outside of the boundaries."

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><p>When Draco and Hermione walked back into camp, the lights were just beginning to fade from the sky and a sweet, evening breeze had begun to filter through the glen. It was beautiful, and the walk back had been an interlude of peace for the two young wizards, who bumped into one another and smiled warmly every so often as their shoulders touched. Hermione couldn't help herself in thinking she really did like the emotional entanglement she stumbled into, even if it the inopportune situation limited her ability to think rationally in a crisis. Feeling the warm, summer air caress her bare arms, she imagined what would happen if a more tangible and soft person were touching her now and holding her so close to his heart.<p>

Likewise, the young man in her company thought hard about the logistics of sweeping her off her feet and losing his hands in that infernal hair of hers. He couldn't actually imagine what would happen in his life if he couldn't see her anymore, or if they had to be separated for any reason. He'd grown accustomed to her face, and he didn't want to deal with the sorrow of parting with it. So he hazarded a look in her direction, and watched her serene face observe the sunset, with tendrils of sunlight snaking over her face, patterns of leaves and holes in the foliage filling the space around them. What kind of person just looked at a sunset and didn't blink? Hermione certainly, and she had to be the most…

"There you two are!" Bill walked forward out of the protection set up around the camp. "We were beginning to wonder when you'd be back."

The young people snapped out of their respective reveries and looked at Bill with an expression of disgust and annoyance that neither particularly meant to show to him. Noting their expressions, Bill nodded and ducked back inside; going to tell Fleur about the potential romance or fight that might be on the cusp of occurring. One could never tell with those two.

"Uh, who do you think we'll bring in first?" Hermione asked, looking down at the ground.

"Oh the children, no debate about that; the sooner we aren't worried about their safety, the better. Several of them need medical attention beyond our understanding." Draco answered, looking off into the distance.

Hermione sighed. "It's a shame we can't use magic on them. If only Gale weren't so stubborn about keeping our magic away from them anymore."

"He has a point anyway. They won't be trusted to be quiet about us once we get to District 13."

"I know. Still, I could be helping them now and some of them wouldn't be in such pain."

"You're such a saint," laughed Draco. "I wish everyone had such a servant's heart."

"Even yourself? Would you do so well, do you think?" She pried, smiling widely.

"I think I would improve dramatically." Draco leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing, watching as Hermione followed his movements with her eyes. His heart rate increased a little as he watched her blink. Feeling like a maniac, he turned his attention to the sunset, which gradually became more and more beautiful with every second. Comparatively, however, it failed juxtapositioned with the stunning woman next to him.

Saying nothing yet, Hermione leaned against her own tree, and looked out at the fading sun as well. Contemplating it's many mysteries and all the things it must have seen, she wondered about all the secrets it could tell from its many years in residency.

"I think you're wonderful just as you are." She finally admitted, looking him straight in the eye. Then, without warning she turned away. "If we can get all the children out in one day, we can rest over night before taking the older kids. Tributes first, then side-along with Bill and Fleur. Do you think she'll be fine in her condition to appar- oh!"

Draco kissed her. Quickly, warmly, suddenly, he just swooped in and placed his mouth over hers in a surprising and endearing manner that sent her pulse rearing and her head spinning. He pressed against her for a moment longer before pulling away, his eyes glowing with the nervous tension of it all and she just stared at him, shocked by his audacity. Further still, she realized how much she had craved it and thought about it. Now had to be as good a time as any to let it happen, and she didn't plan on complaining.

"I'm sorry if I shocked you." He said, looking back out at the sunset. "It seemed a reasonable idea at the time."

"Oh no, of course, it was fine. Very sensible." She swallowed hard and licked her lips, suddenly aware of how chapped they were.

"I think Fleur will be fine. She is technically still in the early stages of the pregnancy, and if we don't make it a habit, she'll manage it quite nicely." He looked back at her, gauging her reaction with his eyes. She offered a small smile, her fingers still trembling.

"Good. Maybe we'll be out again by her third trimester anyway. I would like to have all of this finished and done before her pregnancy becomes very serious."

Draco nodded along. "As would I. Would you possibly get coffee with me, when this is all over?"

"That shouldn't be a problem." Hermione nodded. "I'm not sure what my schedule will look like at that point, but I'm sure I can make time."

"That would be very kind of you." Draco smirked.

"Anything for you." Hermione turned again, now confident in what she wanted and what she would say. Her voice cracked and she felt like she was begging but she didn't care. She just wanted him to know. "Kiss me again, Draco."

"Anything for you." He promised hoarsely, pulling her head to meet his.

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	28. Chapter 28

**My computer went bust and I don't fancy writing anything without it. Sorry if that was horridly inconvenient for anyone. Fair warning, this chapter is full of horrifying surprises. You are welcome.**

Four Months Later

Like all joy, it wouldn't last long. Their final, ephemeral moment had ended with the sunset of that fateful day, the day of the kiss, and the horrors of their situation had finally become a very present reality. They were in the midst of a rebellion they didn't know, but felt obligated to fight, if only because fate had thrust them in the middle of it all. Words were useless in mending the damage done by momentary trauma and hasty speaking. People decided they would rather not see each other anymore, and that haste had marked the progression of their relationship. They weren't meant to be. He had been foolish and she had been cruel. And so it goes.

Others found themselves in the midst of bonding and personal growth, realizing the potential they had never known before. Leadership, service, strategy, and aid all flourished among the gifted individuals added into the mix at District 13, and people were daily assigned to the other Districts throughout the country. Rebellion came in minutes and within hours, the population began to fluctuate. People came and went, people died, people were healed of seemingly fatal wounds. History was changed by the actions of a few.

But of course it wasn't over.

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><p>Draco ducked into an alley way, pressing his back against the wall, clutching his wand in his hand tightly as sweat poured down his neck. Gasping, he watched as the routine watch jogged past, guns in hand. They had a fairly strict rule of engagement; Shoot first, ask questions later. Defense would have been a simple task for a wizard, but the easiest route to remaining undetected was to dodge and avoid. As the squadron jogged up to a corner and split, one half crossing the street and the other half turning out of sight, Draco collected his nerves and slipped back onto the street, his mission firmly in mind.<p>

There was something to be said for espionage, but Draco didn't have any kind words. In his mind, it was a continuation of sneaking around at night, reading and writing reports all day, sleeping for a couple of hours before sliding off into the dark again. Sometimes, in a burst of spontaneity, he would go outside during the day to follow people around and catalogue schedules, and pick up groceries from the Ration Depot. Most of the time he spent it missing his old life, feeling as if everything was just some kind of wicked and everlasting dream. He missed his friends, people who he had gotten to know but in a fit of rage he had disowned and run away from. He heard from Bill every so often, the only one among the group of wizards who still maintained communications with their outsourced companion. Bitterly he thought that the only reason Bill still communicated with him was just because of the tech reports and the exchange of materials. He'd screwed up his relationships with those people royally.

"Draco Malfoy?" A small voice called from a darkened crevice.

"As you see." He stopped and responded quietly, turning to look at the dark. "What do you need?"

"Information. When will the guard come around again?" The invisible person whispered out from the dark.

"You have a good five minutes to get back to you your house." He answered anxiously. "I don't have time to talk, now."

"Will you meet me tomorrow at the corner market? I have news for you."

Draco sighed. "Sure, sure. But tell your superiors I'm not leaving District Four until I've finished things here. I don't care what they offer me; I'm not leaving this place in a worse mess than I found it."

"You might change your mind when you hear what they can get you. It's more impressive than the last offer." A small child slipped out of the shadows and shook out his little cap. "They always tell me to wait for you in the dustiest corners. Could you walk by a fruit stand or something next time?"

"I can do better than that, you little thief." Draco reached into his pocket and tossed an orange at the child, whose face lit up with excitement. "I had a feeling I'd be meeting you tonight. Don't go stealing your treats anymore."

"Thanks. But I won't promise anything." The kid ducked his head and grinned, before skidding off into the streets. As he disappeared around the corner, Draco felt the little glow of companionship fade, and he started walking along again, headed for the big industrial building at the end of the lane. The big building that people went into every day and never left. The building whose smokestacks regularly ejected a thick, foul smelling black smoke that terrorized the citizens living in the district; hanging over them for hours, waiting for the sea breezes to work up enough power to blow it away. Draco had read the reports of deceased operatives and had his own suspicions about what happened inside the headquarters of the garrisoned Capitol army. So every night he observed and looked for openings and snuck out clues and bribed guards for information. He'd been doing it for a month now, and for the first time in all of that, he thought about the outrageous offers he'd been getting. Perhaps it was time to look at them with a more subjective mind. They might be helpful after all.

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><p>"Miss Granger, did you see the patient in room 4A?" Healer Anne asked, approaching the witch with caution.<p>

"No, I didn't, but I read her report. The mysterious burns right?" Hermione turned and looked the young girl in the eyes; feeling a little bit annoyed at her assistant's fear.

"Right. Well, they just changed again, and this time they're over her face, left arm, and the left side of her chest. She demanded to see you right away." Anne backed out of her boss' way and followed behind submissively.

Entering the room, Hermione could see the girl writhing in the bed as a nurse tried to apply cold bandages to the new area of burns.

"Thank you very much, Nurse Winifred. I'll handle it this time." Hermione dismissed the nurse with a flick of her hand, which coincidentally held her wand. Frightened, the nurse scurried out and Anne flinched, as if she expected a spell to burst out and attack her or something. Heaving a sigh of exasperation, Hermione ignored them and set to looking at the girl in the bed.

Her report read that she's come across a group of militia in a town in District 7 who brutally gang raped her and left her for dead. She was found and rushed to a local hospital, but after the District fell apart, she was one of the few invalid refugees to be carried into District 13, just because her attending Doctor wanted someone there to look at her odd malady. Her life was saved by the strange occurrence of her burns, but it might also be lost to them.

"When did they change?" Hermione asked.

"Ten minutes ago or so." Anne answered. "Shall I get you anything?"

"No. I can manage." Hermione answered, her face distracted as she peered at the wounds, calculating what she should be doing with her eyes. Meanwhile, her hands were beginning to move, her wand waving and her other hand laying out flat. Soon enough, a roll of bandages appeared. She then pointed her wand at a small jar. ("Accio!") Once those things were in her hand, Hermione lathered the bandages liberally in the sticky, green ointment and proceeded to lay them on the burned areas. The girl immediately stopped moving and breathed a heavy sigh.

"Why was nobody using this on her burns before?" Hermione demanded, turning to look at Anne incriminatingly. "I had this mixed especially for her."

"The nurses didn't trust your… potion to do anything." Anne answered, terrified. "They didn't think it would be as good as their strictly medical practices."

"Bollucks! Mrs. Everdeen even told them this would have a more pronounced effect on the burns than any "strictly medical" attempts."

"Nurse Winifred said once that she wouldn't be magicked up for anybody." Anne blamed quickly. "They're all afraid of your potions and spells, ma'am."

"Since when did the service of others fall second to personal comfort?" Aggravated, Hermione set another spell mindlessly, and the girl fell asleep, her breathing even and heavy. "If that potion had been regularly and liberally applied, she might be better by now. Assemble the nurses. Tell them to set every patient in comfort and meet in the conference room. I'm going to have a discussion with all of them."

As Hermione walked through the halls, she realized that everyone stood well out of her way. No one greeted her in a cordial manner; no one seemed overly excited to see her. She knew people called her "The Witch" when she wasn't around, and she knew they struggled accepting her for all of her magical abilities. They couldn't deny the impact she had made on their hospital and the lives she had saved were numerous, but people were still hesitant to work with her too closely. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim were her only supporters in the hospital at all, and Hermione was tired of working all of these things alone.

She realized that if only she hadn't let her temper get away with her, she might not be alone right now at all. She might have a someone. She wanted someone to go back to at the end of every day and complain to with a glass of wine and some telly. Of course, her thoughts were back on what would happen if she was in her normal life in her London flat, two blocks from the entrance to Wizarding London, and she had to mentally stop herself from thinking about it much more. It made her homesick and depressed to think about it. They tried to find a way to go back, but it became an impossible feat the more often they tried, some kind of invisible barrier that prevented them from leaving the borders of the dystopian society. They realized they were trapped in a civilization that was not their own until some closure was brought to the horrible place.

Within ten minutes, every nurse was sitting in the conference room, their wimples the only thing Hermione could see from the back of the room. She entered quietly, so they didn't hear her until she stepped directly in front of them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your busy schedules, but some misdemeanors in our system have prompted me to action. It has come to my attention that you are not utilizing all the resources available to you in the healing of your patients. Would anyone care to refute this accusation?"

Of the ten assorted women sitting in the room, none of them stirred, much less blinked at the harsh allegation.

"I am aware that some of my methods are not… traditional in your eyes. I have a different skill set, it is true, but for the sake of the patients in this facility, and for the many more who are bound to arrive in the coming months, can you learn how to manage all of the different opportunities you have to save people's lives! It requires no extra training, no extra work at all."

"What happens if we get magic on us too?" A woman sitting in the back asked loudly, her voice accented with years of lackluster language classes and ignorance.

"You won't feel any effects. I swear it's a safe method that we've been using for generations in the Wizard World. All legitimate magic is only done by me. You are confined to the usage of potions and magical items, because that is all you can handle as mug—non-magical folk."

The meeting went on for another ten minutes, but none of the nurses had a desire to contribute. So they left, and Hermione sat in the conference room, thinking back to all the similar meetings she'd had with the staff, and realizing that change wasn't coming.

Then she thought, with tears in her eyes, _How could everything be so wrong? How did things change so fast?_

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	29. Chapter 29

**I'm dealing with life stuff. Please forgive my lateness, especially after my last update was so confusing and shocking. **

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><p>His fascination for the political fire storm in District 4 had never really been a secret and people had approached him about managing the rebel forces there. His influence as a wizard had been a daunting force at first, but his natural leadership abilities and problem solving skills quickly out-shadowed any fear people had of him. He became indispensable to Coin and her cabinet, and his quick rise to power had gone straight to his head. Hermione, who was still struggling to gain any recognition for what she had done for the band of survivors from the games, and who no one seemed to trust either as a witch or as a healer, could barely stand being in the same room as his success. Feeling bitter and dejected, she had become short-tempered with his egotistical rants, and one night she just couldn't listen to the stories of his victory. Exploding in a fury of jealousy and annoyance, she told him many things she regretted as soon as she finished saying them. Of course he deserved his power, of course he had worked hard, and of course he was making a difference. She just wanted to hurt him.<p>

Her work had been thorough, and the next day, Draco accepted the position in District 4.

The only factor holding him back in 13 had been her face and her embrace and her laugh. Once she had denied him those small things, he didn't really want to stick around. All of the wizards had seen the move into Panem as being nearly permanent, and had therefore tried to establish themselves in their new surroundings. All attempts to reach their old life had been complete failures and hope had been lost that they would ever be recovered. They had all mourned together and helped each other, but then they moved on, and in some cases, moved away. Now Draco, determined to restore his image in war time, was climbing the ladder of success and trying to prove to himself, but also to her, that he could play the good guy. She hadn't noticed.

"If you'll take the District 4 job, it won't be as glamorous, but you'll be in the thick of things. The real battle is there, out in the districts, where the daily struggle is obvious to every person you meet in the street..."

"I'll take it Jones." Draco announced suddenly, interrupting the standard rant of Coin's Secretary of Personnel.

"…You have many more opportunities for adventure. Not so much office work there, but real… wait, what?" He pulled back, as if shocked. "Just like that? You've been turning down this offer for weeks."

"I just changed my mind. You gave a very convincing argument." Draco smirked, feeling the mask of cool indifference and ease slide over his features, hiding away the true feelings of his change of heart.

President Coin leaned forward onto her desk, watching Draco curiously, like a cat. "What happened, Mr. Malfoy?"

Leaning back into his armchair, Draco gave her a look just as inquisitive. "You upped the pay. Let's just say my incentive was monetary and you met it without my having to bargain at all."

"I want to believe it, but I have intelligence suggesting your reasons are personal." She glanced at Jones and waved her hand. Taking the hint, he gasped and got up, gathering the papers in front of him on Coin's desk, but leaving the main contract behind. Clutching everything to his chest he scurried and tripped out of the room. Once he was gone, Coin reached for the contract with two, long fingers and inspected it cynically. "He is such a buffoon, but he understands administration."

"Why should you feel the need to have intelligence on my life?" He casually inquired.

"As the leader of this operation, it is my business to know as much about my staff as possible. Especially those with different skills and supernatural abilities. You posed a threat in the beginning, and I am not so daft as to think you don't pose one now. I like you, Mr. Malfoy. You've done good work here and have helped us immensely. But it remains paramount for me to monitor your behavior and make sure no discrepancies arise. Just because you come in here and say charming things and impress everyone with your tricks doesn't mean I should trust you implicitly."

"Yet you send me to one of our weakest strongholds to build up the rebel force there. That's a massive leadership opportunity to trust someone with." He argued. "It would seem that you have some faith in me."

"I just haven't called off the investigation." She dismissed it, and then pulled a pen out of a cup on her desk. "Will you sign here please?"

Draco, who had read the contract many times over, only glanced to make sure everything was the same as the last reading. It was, so he signed. After nodding to President Coin, he turned on his heel and walked out of the office, apparating to his room to pack his few things, and then heading out to the ship yard to board a hovercraft that would take him away from Hermione and into the war-zone.

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><p>His daily battles weren't very exciting he discovered three weeks into the operation. His main mission had just been to recover information about the districts security, the people, and any nefarious programs going on there. As one of the larger and more heavily populated districts, all of this information was extensive and hard to uncover. The disorganization of militant rule had become the main obstacle of Draco's life there, and he spent more time organizing his information than he did anything else. Coming up with comprehensive reports wasn't hard, and sending them back to 13 was simple enough with a couple spells.<p>

He had a meeting that night with the mysterious K. His rendezvous with the little thief had been only to inform Draco that "K" had been watching him for a long time and had worked hard to keep him informed about everything he needed to know. But now the ringleader of every criminal in the District wanted to make sure the incoming governmental system would be more accommodating than the last one. In other words, he wanted to negotiate, and Draco would instantly have people at his disposal, people who knew the layout and ins and outs of the city far better than he did.

Meanwhile, he sat in his flat, papers spread out all around him. The wards and spells around the place made it completely undetectable to every outside source, and he moved around in front of windows without fear. That was one of the nicer things about working with muggles, he decided. Realizing his monstrous advantage in every situation, he tried to do things simply, just to be fair. Still, when he could do everything magically he did, and that suited him perfectly.

Leaving the flat and the safety it provided him made Draco feel ill as soon as he walked out the door. As long as he stood on the stoop, he could still see the extra floor of his building, the one that belonged to him. As soon as he stepped off, everyone in the world could see him, but even to him the extra level would be gone. But Draco was no coward. Not when it came to battles and meetings or dangers. Maybe with his feelings and secrets, but when it came to doing what he had to do, he never dared turn back. Not anymore and never again would he be that weak, simpering, childish person he used to be. He had to prove it to himself and to her, even if she didn't care.

"You're late." The little thief popped out of a shadow and started keeping pace with the grown man.

"I have arrived precisely when I wanted too." Draco grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets. One hand emerged and tossed a peach at the young kid.

"How did you keep that in your pocket without smooshing it?" He asked, smelling the fruit.

Draco wiggled his fingers and winked. "Magic, kid."

"Whatever. You ready to meet K?" He asked through a mouth full of peach juice.

"Of course. Your K doesn't scare me." Draco shrugged.

"He ought too. He's got this mysterious way about him. All dark and mad, and he's big. Really big, bigger than you even."

"A lot of people are bigger than me. I've learned to accept that." Draco realized all of a sudden that he didn't know this kid's name, and he decided to ask.

"A lot of people call be Bratty, but my mother calls me Jim." He answered, giving Draco a funny look. "Why do you care?"

"So I'll know what to call you if I ever see you again." Draco explained.

Jim, having finished his peach, threw the stone at a storm drain. "What makes you think you'll be seeing me again?"

"Just a funny feeling in my stomach."

"That's called being nervous to meet K." Jim laughed and started running ahead. "Come on, then!"

* * *

><p>Three dark alley ways, two bridges, and a rickety stair well later, Draco found himself in an attic, and of all the things he had been expecting, this hadn't been one of them. It was almost homey, except for the burly thugs and weaponry lying about. K wasn't in the room, but he was supposed to be there any minute. Realizing how weak he must look to them, Draco tried to sit a little taller and flex his significantly smaller but not to be ignored muscles. After feeling very foolish, he decided to stop. He could take any of these punks with a flick of his wand.<p>

"Do not react to strongly ven you see me." A voice, heavy with a Russian accent suddenly boomed. "I have 'idden myself from you for a reason."

"I promise to remain calm, sir." Draco answered, feeling nervous with the cryptic turn of the evening.

When suddenly, Igor Karkaroff stepped out from behind a curtain, and Draco almost fell out of his chair.

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><p><strong>I do expect some love, manifested in the form of a review. Don't let me down.<strong>


	30. Chapter 30

**Don't worry, my life crap is under control again, but now summer is here and I'd rather be outside than typing away in a dark room. So my updates will still be infrequent. But please go out and enjoy the beautiful season. It's one of the very best. **

**Also, you asked for Draniss. We'll see how it goes. **

* * *

><p>The sudden revelation of Igor Karkaroff was enough to surprise and shock Draco, but not enough to paralyze and limit him. He had grown used to sudden surprises in his position and quite frankly, throughout his life. So he immediately set to business.<p>

Igor was in control of the underground city in District Four, an organization that Draco had only been able to catch whispers of in his journeys around town. He had established connections in every government stronghold that resided in the district, but now he wanted to know that he could get his hands on a significant playoff once District 13 took over. Flattered that people found the power exchange inevitable, Draco was more than willing to work out an exchange, but negotiations were tough. At one point in the meeting, a man held a gun up to Draco's temple and threatened to blow his brains onto the curtains if he didn't put his wand away. Igor laughed heartily and pulled out his own wand and explained to Draco that his men called it the kill stick. Not feeling much like laughing in the moment, Draco just put his wand back in his pocket and tried to make a conscious effort not to fiddle with it for the rest of the meeting.

Afterwards, Igor said he needed rest and pulled Draco aside for more private discussion. He elaborated on the wand debacle by telling him that he reached power with magic, and that had required a little bit of killing. They saw the wands as evil.

"But what of you, lad? You don't just stumble into an alternate universe on accident." Igor clapped him on the back, as if it was some kind of great achievement.

"I did nothing to achieve it, I promise. I just woke up in the Games and I've been fighting ever since."

"Then someone had to have brought you here, and it wasn't me. I do not need wizards to compete with as well. We shall reconvene and finish what we've started here. Go home and sleep. You can apparate to and from."

And so he did. Appearing on the street, he met the second surprise of that night, sitting on a door step just a few blocks away. Her hair fell in a brain across her chest, and her small frame was draped in gray and black clothes that dwarfed her and made her look more imposing as the face of a new rebellion, but not as the young, worried girl who had only done anything to save her sister.

"Katniss!" He blurted, surprised and anxious to see her. She was the first of any of his old comrades that he had seen in months, and while they had something of a rocky history and he almost didn't want to see her now, he was too eager for company to let such qualms get in the way.

"They told me you lived here, but I couldn't find the house. I was just about to go back…" She let her words trail off as he approached her. Standing up from the stoop, she approached him. "Espionage looks good on you. How did Coin trick you into this job?"

"I volunteered actually. The situation in 13 was less than ideal." Draco shrugged. "Let's go inside. It wouldn't be good to be seen on the street. Has anyone seen you?"

"No, I haven't seen anyone."

"We should hurry anyway. I've hidden the place from view. Get ready to be surprised." Walking towards a blank space in the sandstone wall, in between two shrubs and a broken plank, Draco took her hand and stepped confidently into the brick. Immediately, Katniss could see the building shift and a door appeared in front of her. She stepped through and walked up the stairs, entering into the mostly bare studio loft that Draco called home.

"You certainly live lightly." She noted. "How did you make it look like this place didn't exist?"

"Magic." Draco wiggled his fingers. No one, no muggle anyway, could ever find us here. Most wizards couldn't either. They may know something is here, but it would be impossible for them to get into."

"That would be useful for other operatives on the field." Katniss walked over to a pile of paper that lay in one corner next to his bed.

"Only a wizard could maintain it. It would be impossible for them. It's an unfair advantage for me, but that's an injustice I have to live with." He shrugged well naturedly. "What brought you out here looking for me?"

"I wanted to get away from the team. I've been visiting several of the districts, and I'm supposed to be giving them hope, and fighting with them, but it takes all the hope away from me. I don't know what Coin was thinking this would do. We're acting just like the Capitol, with the propaganda and the footage of me doing fake things. I wanted to get away."

"I thought my position was classified." Draco raised a brow.

She sat down and smoothed the sheets next to her. "I made a point to figure out where you would be when I heard you were going to be out on the field. I thought I could visit you."

"Why would you want to visit me?"

"I thought you might be lonely."

"Why would that be?"

"Because you are."

He crossed his arms and looked away. "I am not."

Sighing, she leaned back on her elbows. "I know you and Hermione are no longer working, alright? And her friends had to stick with her so I know that you don't keep in touch with them."

"Bill sends me letters." He glanced back.

"Progress reports don't count." She snapped. "Listen, I don't know what happened, but you decided you wanted her rather than me. Well now she doesn't want you but I do. I'm just here to show you that you don't have to be… alone."

"Katniss, you're still much younger than I am." He could already feel his stomach knotting. This was exactly why he didn't want to say hello to her. He was lonely, but not in need of a love interest.

"If that is your only opposition then you have no real reason." She argued, sitting straight up.

"I don't need the distraction." He countered, but she was ready for that as well.

"I'm here tonight and then gone tomorrow. How is that distracting?"

"I refuse to do that to you, Katniss. You can't just come in here and offer yourself that way. What are you trying to prove?"

"That I…" She stopped. "I… I love you."

"I have not given you any reason, and I certainly hope that I have not encouraged you in anyway. You have to see my reason here. You're nothing but a girl."

"Then make me a woman." She whispered.

His heart stopped at her simple tone. Striding towards her in two quick steps, he took her face in his hands and examined her cautiously, kissing her forehead and hair line. "When did you become such a vixen?"

"In this moment. I was so scared you would reject me." She leaned into his hand and kissed his palms.

"I should. My conscience is telling me I should turn you out now and send you home." His voice had become raspy with want, as his desires won over his reason. Despite knowing what was right, he couldn't help but wish this could also be right, if he didn't have to be so alone for one night.

"Draco, do you…?" She left the question in the air and he froze, the frenzied kisses on her jaw slowing to a halt.

"What?"

"Do you love me?" She asked timidly.

A stab of guilt rocked him to his core for thinking he could make love to this young girl whose innocence had not yet run its course. She didn't know anything, he realized. She had no idea what she was asking for.

"No Katniss. I like you plenty, but I am not in love with you like you want me to be." He backed away and rubbed his hands together. "You shouldn't have come here. You tempt me and tease me and destroy me all at once. I intend to make things right with Hermione, not move on to an ignorant teenager with problems I haven't had to deal with in years. "

"You can't call me ignorant! I know what I want from you and from everybody else… and I know full well what I am asking you for and what it would mean and what you will probably say to me when it's all over." She protested angrily. "You don't have to love me, and I can't expect you to. I'm sorry I even asked."

"If you know all of that, I'm surprised you came over here at all. You can get the same thing from Peeta or Gale or one of the other boys that adore you. This is not something I can do for you."

"What do you think I'm asking for? Just kiss me and hold me and let me sleep here tonight. We don't have to do anything else but enjoy one another's company. Tell me about your work here and what you do and I'll listen."

"Leave…" His order was weak and she took advantage of it, coming up quickly to press her lips to his and to hold his arms tightly.

"Don't make me." She whispered back, kissing his unresponsive lips again.

He let his hands hold her tiny waist and his lips moved against hers. He felt his blood heat up and his heart beat quicken. His stomach felt heavy and his head felt light. He wanted to run and stay and shout and whisper all at once, so he decided to kiss her back thoroughly, as it was about the only thing that could possibly summarize those feelings.

Her back hit the wall and his hand smacked up next to her head while the other hand pulled the small of her back into him. She wiggled until she was on her tiptoes so she could hold his hair in her hands and massage his scalp gently, but she ended up pulling it as the passion escalated. Hot kisses trailed down the neck and ears were bitten and grazed over. Fingers held onto the other person so tightly they were sure to leave a bruise, but neither paid any attention.


End file.
